Star Fox: Lylat Against Corneria
by starfox4life
Summary: Star Fox is enjoying their break from the first Lylat War. Suddenly, one by one each planet grows a massive hatred for Corneria. The planets have turned against them. Will Corneria be able to hold off all other planets. Please read and review! Your constructive criticism will help me with my terrible writing!
1. Chapter 1 - Finchinia

**AUTHORS NOTES: Yeah, I know the whole conversation between Fox and the enemy repeats twice. Sorry for the error.**

4:07 PM - December 24, 2275 - Central Finchinia Lake

Finchinia was home of Rocky, the crocodile that lived under Central Finchinia Lake, near Rodroom City. He never wanted to be bothered. Pollution has struck the water for 10 years which bothered him even more, but if he ever moved to a new home he wouldn't be accepted by the Finchinians. People call him " The Rock That Moves."

"Put your hands up, now! This is Starfox!" Fox yelled at the top of his lungs. They had arrived on the planet Finchinia, and now they are capturing a criminal force known as 'Reptilian Force'. They had been causing crimes in Snow City, a beautiful city, which drove people away. To a city they thought as nice was now ridden with filthy criminals, there was too many of them for the police department to deal with.

"Okay, I will." said Leon Powalski, the leader of the squadron, reluctantly. "Falco, put him in handcuffs and get him in the interrogation room on the Great Fox, please." Fox demanded.

"Will do. You're coming with me you filthy animal!" Falco vociferated at him, dragging him by the neck.

"Slippy, tell General to get us to Point Femo on the Western Part of the Glacier Mountains, please." Fox urged. "Calling them right now, they're on their way!" The team heard an obstreperous noise coming from above 62nd Street. General had shown up. He had settled the commodious Great Fox in the center of the thoroughfare.

General had loaded up the team and brought them to the main battle playground. The lake.

"Alright, you're ready to go Starfox Team."

The lake has frozen over so, Rocky quickly moved out before winter.

"They have sent submarines below the ice, so we need to move quickly."

In the submarine.

"Nuriome! There's an enemy spotted! It's Starfox!" Scrolare yelled.

"ATTACK!"

The submarine submerged with the ice and started shooting at the ground below the team.

The first shot, a power charge obliterated the surrounding ice.

As the ice was catching up to Star Fox, they were forced to speed up.

Slippy, well, slipped.

"Slippy! Get back here!" Peppy yelled.

"I'll get him Peppy!" Fox said as he made a running leap and landed on his back sliding on the ice like Slippy did.

"I'm coming for ya' Slip!"

"Slippy, watch out! Bogey on your tail!"

"Woah! Fox! Help me!"

Fox quickly shot down the bogey as he latched onto Slippy, still sliding.

"Thanks, Fox, I thought they had me."

"Anytime, Slip."

Just then, the missile submerged out of the ice, making a giant shattering sound, causing everyone to lose their guard. Peppy and Falco were standing right on the missile, riding it, hoping to not fall off as it gained speed. It started going faster, faster, and faster. The missile caught up to Fox and Slippy.

"Slippy! Move or else you'll get struck by the missile!" Fox said as he pushed Slippy across the ice.

The missile just missed Fox and Slippy. Fox didn't know where Slippy went for the giant missile in the way, and then he saw Peppy and Falco riding it.

"FALCO! PEPPY! THE MISSILE IS HEADING FOR SHORE JUMP OFF NOW!"

Falco and Peppy jumped off right before the missile exploded on the shore causing all the ice to break around them. Falco and Peppy were stuck in the freezing cold water. Fox ran as fast as he could to save them, but it had been too late. They've sunk.

Fox dove underwater to find Falco and Peppy close to the submarine. They sank further and further down until they were about to be hit by the motor of the submarine.

"Farhlcbo! Perpry!" he said calling their names underwater.

"Forx yur urkay!" said back.

Fox snatched Falco and Peppy back up to the surface of the water, which was a difficult task because he was carrying 440 pounds of weight in total on his back.

Fox gasped for air when he surfaced and started hyperventilating.

"Fox, take it easy." Peppy said.

"I'll do whatever it takes Peppy."

Then he realized he left Slippy behind.

"Oh no, I forgot Slippy!" he yelled.

"Go get Froggy yourself, Fox. Me and Peppy will check with you later." Falco demanded as he and Peppy struggled to get out of the water.

Fox looked for Slippy until he saw him under a frozen waterfall in the woods.

"Are you alright, Slippy?"

"Y-yeah, j-j-j-j-just f-f-f-freezing t-that's a-all."

"OK, warm up, then we have to head to the city."

Of course, just like Corneria City, Rodroom City looked like it was on the brink of mass extinction. This time the enemies did a siege attack behind the tall hills of Finchinia and snuck underground. They stole all the city's food, weapons and shelter and now they're powerless to this intellectual force, and there's no way to stop them now. No, but, not with the help of… **STARFOX!**

"Let's eavesdrop on the guards on the way up, we need some intel for a raise." Falco remarked as they started their way up. They felt a warm sensation against their faces as the heat healed their old, cold, grown faces. "I spot two guards up ahead. I'll collect some intel." Falco said. They got out their advanced hearing devices to collect intel.

"Да, я слышал, что Звездная лиса захватила рептилии силы, и они у них на корабле."

(Yeah, I heard Star Fox captured Force Reptile and they have them on their ship.)

"К счастью, мы разрабатываем оружие массового уничтожения, которое уничтожит всю команду."

(Luckily, we're developing mass destruction weapons that will take down their entire team.)

Интересно, что они шпионили за нами.

(I wonder if they're spying on us.)

Я бы не удивился, если бы они были.

(I wouldn't be surprised if they were.)

Может быть, я просто параноик, но я слышу неузнаваемый двигатель.

(Maybe I'm just paranoid, but I hear an unrecognizable engine.)

"What are they saying?" Fox obnoxiously murmured.

"They're speaking Finchinian, a language I know because I grew up here. They're saying that they are developing weapons to eviscerate our entire soldiery."

All of a sudden there was a crackle in the elucidation system. " Ну, хорошо, хорошо, что у нас здесь? Мы знаем, что ты все время подкрадываешься к нам!" (Well, well, well, what do we have here? We know you have been skulking up on us the entire time!)

Then there was a cyclopean palpitate in the Landmaster making it take off at a colossal promptitude. Fox, Slippy, Peppy and Krystal all hopped out of the vehicle at high speeds which left them with unhumorous impairments. Falco's door was frozen shut, and the Landmaster directed toward a sludgy part of the ice. The sludge could not support the immense ponderosity of the tank and the snow fell. He was cemented in a cavern.

"Дерьмо!" Falco strongly cursed. "Черт возьми!" He cursed again. Falco, disoriented and discombobulated, was stuck in an emulator's somewhat 'understructure' of an armory. He began to ransack the place, embezzling, splintering weapon cases one by one.

He tried to call Fox but there was no connection. Falco was solicitous because he didn't know what was happening on the periphery.

Fox, and the rest of his team were running for the dear lives. Hiding behind cover, checking for corners. They found the sludgy ice and as they slided in, they kerplunked on the floor. "Falco!" Fox called out but there was no retaliate. "This place is verminous!" Slippy remarked. Trash laid on the floor and the only evidence of Falco being here was a couple wizened footprints. The place looked as it had been raided with the splinters of ice on the ground and vehicle remnants.

"It seems as though Falco scattered down this hall, concatenate bodies together, we don't want to lose each other," Fox demanded. The team went down the north-east hall, they saw a light ahead. Out of curiosity, Fox decided to investigate what it was. When he stepped out, the light beamed in his eyes nearly blinding him. The headache he got was grave. What made the headache even worse, was the sound of blaring sirens. He knew that he got caught.

"Ой, почему они так тяжело поднимаются по этой лестнице?" (Ow, why do they make these stairs so hard to climb.) Falco said while distinguishing a cacophonous shrill sound. He went to look in the main base window to look. He had sidled into the paramount base. This vocation was taking an enchanting turn. For the better or the worse? Falco came across the stairs and opened the icy door. He tried to step down but slipped.

"My head, ouch!" Fox yelled in agony. Fox then heard a loud scream coming from the base. It sounded like Falco. "Ow! My head again!" He heard Falco's scream and the sound of guardsmen feet running with artillery in their possession. "Guys! We need to find Falco! Quick!"

Fox demanded while running in the base.

Slippy, Peppy, and Krystal all headed toward Fox. "Wherever Falco is, I hope that he is okay." Krystal said worryingly with shaking hands. "Don't worry we'll find him." Fox searched around in the so-what abandoned control room. He saw a blob of blue outthrust from underneath the chair.

"Falco!" Fox enthusiastically blurted. Fox was confused. He wasn't answering. "Come on Falco, get up!" Fox said with a fake smile. "I don't think that's him," Peppy came closer, "it's just a blanket." Fox's heart rate slowed down because he presumed Falco dead.

"I'm going to check in the water pump department." Fox said going down the stairs and slipping. Fox screamed in horror as he fell all the way down the flight of 'icy death' stairs. He landed on a bluish body. "Falco! Buddy!" Fox said exhilaratingly. "Guys, I found Falco! Just be careful going down the stairs!" Slippy went first and. . .well. . . slipped, and so did the others. Out of all of them Falco was the only one unconscious. At that point everyone knew he was unconscious.

Falco started to awake as he saw his teammates kneeling down to help him. He started to expectorate up blood. "Slippy, get your first aid kit out!" Fox quickly necessitated. "Right on it, Fox!" Slippy brought his kit out and started to do a light 'check up' on Falco and polished him up.

"Are you alright? Can you stand?" Slippy inquired. Falco tried to stand up, but his legs began to wobble. He tripped making a vociferous thunder sound throughout the base.

Fox had proficient hearing and eavesdropped on the guards. They were surprisingly close. They were on the floor above. "Guys, I have the heebie-jeebies," Fox said shaking, "the guards are above us! We have to go!" Fox scurried out of the base and slid down the south-west hall. Leaving his team behind.

Then, a sound loud enough to make anyone deaf, went through the hall. A burning pain shot through Fox, it was definitely a feeling he has felt before, but this pain was worse. Much worse.

" **Эй, мы наконец нашли свинью, я имею в виду, лису." (Hey, I found the pig, I mean, fox.)**

"Who are you, what do you want from me?" Fox said horrified laying on the ice floor unable to move.

"Не будь глупым, Фокси, Вы точно знаете, почему." (Don't be stupid Foxy, you know exactly why.)

"Okay, we were spying on you. We needed enemy intel, but we failed hard time." Fox sadly wept, his tears rolling down.

"Достаточно поговорить с ребенком, тебе пора заплатить, Фокс." (Enough with the baby talk, it's time for you to pay, Fox.)

Nuriome slowly took out his gun from his pocket and aimed it at Fox's cranium.

"Не заставляй меня стрелять." (Don't make me shoot)

As soon as Nuriome pulled the trigger, Peppy shot him in the head before any harm was done.

Nuriome fell to the floor.

"Fox! Are you alright?"  
"Yes, Peppy, and everyone else here, we're calling for support right now."

Fox still had tears running down his face and freezing into tiny icicles.

"ERT to Fox, ERT to Fox, we're landing and sending a rope down your way."

The rope came down from the crack of light from the surface, and they started climbing.

They climbed to safety. They climbed to warmth. They climbed to love. They climbed for the lives. They climbed to family and for family.


	2. Chapter 2 - Titania

I

"Starfox, prepared for landing." General said. The immense amount of dryness and sand in the air caused them to wear masks over the mouths. "This mission has been assigned by MacBeth. A droid overlord has taken over not just Titania City, but Titania. Good luck, Star Fox."

Meanwhile, in a Titanian base…

"Vy govorite, chto Starfox bez truda dobratsya do Finchinii." (Are you saying that Starfox got through Finchinia with no effort?)

"K sozhaleniyu, da, ser." (Unfortunately, yes sir.)

"Oni, veroyatno, teper' k vam iz-za tebya!" (They're probably here by now because of you!)

"Ne volnuytes, ya mogu izgotovit' bol'she Nuriomov, master." (Don't worry, I can make more Nuriome's master.)

"Sdelayte ikh bystrymi i sdelayte ikh sil'nymi, vy durak!" (Make them quick and make them strong you fool!)

"Da, ser!" (Yes sir!)

Doris who worked for the UTAA (Underground Titanian Army Association) tried to make it out the door of that base clean, but he did not know **he** would snap.

"I ty, Doris, ya slyshal, chto ty pytalsya ubezhat', i u lyudey yest' dokazatel'stva etogo." (And you Doris, I have heard that you have tried to escape and people have proof of it.)

"Kakiye? Ty ser'yezno?" (What? Are you serious?)

"U menya yest' lenty, Doris." (I have the tapes, Doris.)

Doris blacked out and woke up in a familiar room. A room that scared him to bits.

"Itak, Doris, tak kak ty ne priznayesh', chto oshibayesh'sya, ya zastavlyu tebya posmotret'!" (So, Doris, since you won't admit your wrong doing, I'll make you watch it!)

 **3 days earlier…**

Doris woke up from his bunker and snuck his way around the sandstone walls, hoping no security cameras were around. He creeped toward the heavily guarded door and entered the passkey through a security office. The security was out on an early 3AM breakfast break. Doris entered the passcode and the door opened.

The door made a squeaking sound and he was put back to his bunker.

 **Now…**

"Teper' eto slishkom mnogo dokazatel'stv dlya obrabotki, Doris?" (Now is that too much evidence to handle, Doris?)

 **He** pulled out a newly released blaster and aimed it at Doris' head.

"Mne ne nravyatsya lzhetsy, tak chto plyuyte pravdu!" (I don't like liars, so spit the truth!)

 **He** cocked the gun and started to countdown from ten.

"U vas yest' desyat' sekund!" (You have ten seconds!)

"Khorosho, khorosho, ya sdelal eto. Ya predal vas, rebyata. Ya prosto ne chuvstvoval, chto u menya yest' svoboda. Ya khotel uyti." (Okay, okay, I did it. I betrayed you guys. I just didn't feel like I had any freedom. I wanted to leave.)

"Teper', Doris, u tebya yest' dva vybora. Tyazhelyy trud ili smert'." (Now, Doris, you have two choices. Hard labor or death.)

What went through Doris' mind after that question was fuzzy. So many reasons on why each was good and each was bad. Doris quickly shot up from the chair and kicked **him** hard to the wall and stole his blaster. Doris ran. All security was alarmed and every soldier was alerted. The man over the loudspeaker leading them to the room sounded scared.

Doris didn't know why they were after him. They had always said anyone stronger than **him** cannot be beaten, and the team must retreat. Doris was always good at sneaking and he got out of the base safely… sort of. Someone caught a glimpse of Doris running toward a sand hill and had ordered for tanks with heavy artillery.

Doris was gasping for air out in the middle of the big and arid Zona Smertnosti Desert with no water. The heat was pressuring him down as it neared 121 degrees. "Ya prinyal khorosheye i plokhoye resheniye." (I have made a good and bad decision.)

II

Starfox had been traveling for hundreds of miles until they saw a hint of civilization. The sign read "Zona Metropolii." Slippy was sweating from head to toe. "When are we going to get to the city? I'm about to die of a heat stroke!" Slippy laid down in the Landmaster. "Don't worry, we're almost there." Falco lazily slurred while drenched in sweat. "I shouldn't have worn this heavy armor, but hey, at least if there's a surprise attack I'll be ready." Fox said.

Slippy saw a sight of a person laying down on the ground. "Falco! Stop the car!" Slippy yelled.

Falco slammed on the brakes vigorously, supplies flying everywhere. "Look, there's a person!" Fox exclaimed, while getting out of the Landmaster Tank.

Doris yelled because he thought Fox's tank was the tank they ordered. "What, we're not here to hurt you. We just want to know why you here." Fox calmed Doris down. Doris was fairly familiar with the language he was speaking. "Do you speak English?" Fox asked him. Doris thought for about two seconds of what the right word to say was. "Y-y-yes? Only a bit." he answered.

"Why are you here? Is there something wrong?" Fox asked again. "There are bad people coming. Bad. They want t-to kill me." Doris answered. Everybody on the team was near Fox and Doris. "We want to know where you work, so we can be familiar of what we're dealing with." Fox started to look around.

"The UTAA." Doris answered weakly.

"What? Oh army is gonna be harder to 'fend off." Falco worryingly said. "Come on, are we going to battle them or what, I have the guns loaded!" Fox said annoyed. "Yeah, but let's get Doris safe in the car, OK?" Falco said. After they loaded Doris in, they headed off to Zona Metropolii, which was down the sand hill.

By the time they'd arrived the whole town had been alerted of a missing UTAA soldier and everyone was on guard. The whole city was a felonbesotarea. Guns pointed out of their windows. Tanks roamed the main streets as they crushed pedestrians crossing. Screams of terror everywhere. "Hey, this is the entrance to the suburbs! If we take this street we can hide until the tank comes!" Slippy suggested.

"That ain't a bad idea, Slip." Falco said, "Finally a decent idea by Slippy." he murmured under his breath. "What?" Slippy yelled. "Nothing." Falco lied. The Landmaster drove past houses for a good three miles before stopping by the section of department stores. "Slippy, put on your radar. Where are the tanks?"

Fox asked. "There's one coming down 34th street and right now we're on 29th." Slippy informed.

"Open the top tank window and turn on 32nd. By the time we get there we're going to be on the same street." Fox said as he climbed up to the top gun. "Fox, what do you think you're doing?" Slippy said, concerning Fox's decisions. "Falco, turn down here. The tank should be right in front of us." Fox commanded, ignoring Slippy.

Fox started to rapid fire at the tank. "Fox, get down, those are ML4211's." Slippy said as the Landmaster spun out of control. "The tank is steerhurrying away! Keep chasing him to downtown!" Fox yelled as Falco stepped as hard as he could on the gas. He was haulin' ass. Soldiers were coming out of each house one-by-one all in order. "Let's get out of this suburbia. I want a real fight." Falco complained.

UTAA Headquarters Tower - 11:23 A.M.

" Khorosho. My sledim za nashim soldatom. Davayte vernem yego." (Good. We have an eye on our soldier. Let's get him back.) **He** said as he evilly looked over the radar.

 **He** ordered for 5,000 soldiers to line up around the city.

III

"We're headed for the freepass." Falco said, still chasing after the tank. The tank spun around and tried to shoot. "What does this guy think he's doing?" Falco dodged the shot. The Landmaster spun as it made a loud drifting sound. "Watch out for the car!" Fox yelled. The Landmaster hit a poor family trying to escape the city of madness.

The tank hit a propane truck. The propane truck exploded along with the tank. The sight was terrifying and beautiful at the same. The bright colors bursting in the air along with dark, ashy colors after. The free pass bridge started to fall apart one by one. Brick by brick, foundation by foundation, the bridge fell into the water.

"Start driving, quick! If we don't get out here in time, we will die!" Slippy yelled regurgitating his breakfast out the window. Fox stepped on the pedal so hard it almost broke. "Downtown, here we co-" Fox stopped midway in his sentence to see lines of soldiers along the main street. "What do we do now? They're covering the street." Slippy yelled. "This." Fox drifted the car and drove it through a bank.

Fox ran over employees and skipped through a hair salon, a bakery, a gift shop, and a daycare. "Fox, you almost killed those innocent children!" Krystal yelled driving Fox off the road. "Those children aren't innocent if they're raised here!" Fox objected. "Guys, I'm calling in for chopper and turret support right now." Falco said as he turned on the speaker.

"This is Falco and we are requesting for chopper and turret support, copy." Falco sent the message to Pepper. "Alright, we're sending choppers and turrets at six o'clock of your current location, they should arrive in five minutes, copy." Pepper responded. "Thank you, over." Falco ended the call. Fox started driving up the hill out of the city. "Fox, where are you going?" Slippy yelled. "We're going to snipe them up the hill!" Fox said.

"Excuse me, Mr. Fox, but I don't know how to snipe." Doris said. "Don't worry, I'll protect you behind cover. Maybe I'll teach you something. Wait a minute, if they don't teach sniping, they don't know what it is, so that's their weak point. Perfect."

"General, we're calling for a Code 378 over here, copy." Fox sent a message to General. A code 378 was a code number for heavy sniper support. "Fox, I'm inquiring why you would need a code 378, copy." General sounded confused. "The enemies don't know what sniping is, or how to do it, so we can use that as their weak point. Make sure to have a Code 820 on the way down as well, so they have some cover." Fox replied. Code 820 was a code number for sending extra vehicles for professional snipers.

"Fox, our ship is heading your way right now." General said as Fox looked up in the sky to see a ship. "I like the fast transportation." The ship unloaded and then Fox directed them to shoot at Main Street. "I want you to fire them smart and fast, no slowing down, come on!" The bullets shot out like flies on to the city streets, dropping one after another.

IV

"Guys, come on, let's get in the vehicles and let's get to downtown!" Fox ordered them. The cars raced to the back door of **his** base and then breached it. Fox and his team scurried up the stairs, having their gun sights turn whenever their heads did. Fox got down on his knees as they were right outside of the door where **he** stood. "Alright, on the count of three, we break down this door. 1...2...3."

Fox and Falco kicked the door straight off of its hinges and shot everyone in the room. "They dropped faster than dominoes." Falco stood on the bodies. Yet they hadn't killed everyone as **he** was still breathing. "Let this guy bleed out, he deserves this painful death." Fox said as he and his team left the room.

"General, send the Great Fox here, we killed him, copy." Fox sent a message. "Alright, it's on the way, be patient, copy." General replied. The Great Fox arrived at the window while the snipers took out most of the UTAA population. The team hopped on the ship.

"Ne pozvolyayte im sbezhat'. Yesli oni eto sdelayut, snimite ikh." (Don't let them escape. If they do, take them down.)

The Great Fox zoomed past the city and into the distance.

V

Fox looked out the window to a great vast nothingness for hours. He had more boring hours of his life than this, but this was certainly up there. "Falco, I'm bored, do something interesting, or make me laugh." Fox called out. "Hold on Foxy, I got just the thing." Falco ran to his bedroom. "I told you not to call me that!" Fox yelled in exasperation.

Falco tried to entertain the team with these ridiculous costumes and danced around like a fool. "Hey guys, how do you think I look in this costume?" Falco asked everyone. "You look terrible." Krystal giggled. Fox laughed so hard, he started bawling. "You look like something straight out of Annwfn!" Falco got kind of irritated but also agreed with Krystal. "You're right. I'm so bored, let's dub over some movies." Falco said. That was his favorite thing to do in his off time. Doris sat on one of the barstools in the kitchen, writing a letter, not paying attention to what was happening in the living room. "Ooh, look, a Rom-Co-."

The Titanian emergency newscast came on and cut off Falco's words. Fox immediately stopped laughing and got off the floor.

"Reports are saying multiple gigantic sand tornadoes are radicating the rural Titanian Plain, we recommend anyone out there to be safe. To anyone flying or driving vehicles, I wish you the best of luck. Sehda, out." The TV turned off automatically. Everyone in the room stared. Slippy looked like he was about to have an outburst.

"Slippy, are you alright?" Krystal asked. Slippy just walked out of the room and into his bedroom.

"Guys, unfortunately, we have to ride through this storm. There is no way to escape it." Fox had to sadly announce. "Wind gusts are powering up to the point where it can do damage to the ship." Peppy said.

A big gust of wind hit the window. "Oh no, here it is. Prepare yourself." The TV turned on. "This is not a drill. This your emergency broadcast system announcing that a level 5 sandstorm is coming your way. For the 500,000 spread out individuals in rural lands, we pray for you. If you have a bunker, we recommend you head there immediately. Thank you and good night."

"I can control the ship." Falco yelled running toward the pilot area. Fox caught up to him and dragged him away. "Falco, are you crazy? You can't fly the ship, it's too dangerous." Fox said, bewildered. "Trust me, I can fly this thing." Falco ran. When he got to the pilot area, he saw ROB. "Get out of my way, you piece of metal."

"SORRY, I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU MEAN BY GET OUT OF THE WAY, YOU PIECE OF METAL." ROB responded. Falco lifted him and set him on the floor. "Alright, I'm finding a way out of the storm no-" Falco was cut off by the big gust of wind that hit the aircraft sending it into a downward spiral. Loud alarms were blasting through the ship and Fox ran toward the pilot room. Falco heaved the control stick to elevate. The stick fell apart. "Falco!" Fox yelled and carried Falco out of the pilot room and into a bunker.

VI

The ship was sent down to the ground to its doom. The team started to move out of the bunker. They headed outside and the storm was over. It was sunny and calm. "For all the times we've been to Titania, this has got to be the most… interesting one." Peppy said coughing and limping in the sand. "Guys, I really don't want to walk. Should we check if the Landmaster still works?" Slippy asked. "Yeah, I'll take a look at it." Fox said sprinting to the garage. Though the ship crashed, the garage worked fine and it opened with little to no problems. Fox inspected the Landmaster and a face of discouragement grew. The Landmaster overheated and its tires had been destroyed. Fox sprinted back.

"Guys, the Landmaster is broken. The garage still works, but the Landmaster is completely destroyed. Everything else in the garage was fine as well." Fox started to think with suspicion. "You don't think someone else was on our ship without us knowing." Falco said with a worried face. "If someone was on our ship, they can have it. It's destroyed anyway, what use would the enemies make of it?" Fox argued.

"They could use the pieces for scrap, which can build ships." Falco said. "Good point, whatever let's just leave it. Let's go find the next village." Fox said packing up tiny food and water. "I know there's a village, it says on this map that the village is between five to ten miles away, so walking shouldn't be a problem." Fox groaned. " Here, put this on…" Falco said.

VII

As they approached the village they could hear loud music and chanting. They also saw a person overwatching the village. "Is there a festival going on here?" Fox wondered. "I think it's just tradition to do this." Falco said. The team blended in well with their costumes. The buildings had an ancient look to them. Some second story floors had no roofs. No privacy. Fox started to step toward a food stand. "The food I packed isn't good, let's try this stand."

Fox started to get paranoid as he saw three large men point at them, but he shrugged it off.

"你好" said the woman. Fox turned over to Falco slowly. "Umm, do you know what she's saying?"

"Yeah, trust me, I'm a good trading partner and diplomat, and not to mention, a foreign exchange student." Falco bragged before speaking to the woman. "我想尝试一个苹果，请." (I would like one apple, please.) Fox stood there amazed at Falco's skill to speak languages. "我想尝试一个苹果，请。" (Here's your sample.) Falco was amazed at how the apple tasted. It wasn't like any apple he's tasted before.

"哇谢谢你。" (Wow, thank you.) Falco and Fox started to head to a bike and gas shop. "Wow, look at all of their futuristic bikes." Slippy sat staring at them, amazed that an isolated village could be so technologically advanced. "These bikes are splendid." Fox looked down at one. Out of nowhere, a trader came up to them and Fox jumped a little. "Do you like bike?" The trader said with broken English. "Err, yeah. These bikes are great. How much?" Fox asked slowly. "500." The man said. "I'll pass, thanks, though!" Fox politely answered. Fox started to get a little scared as the three big men slowly walked toward them, Fox turned around fast.

Falco turned to Fox. "I'm calling the CARA (Cornerian Army Rescue Association) right now. I'll tell them that our Great Fox had been destroyed and to build us a new one." Falco started to call them, the rest of the team sitting in silence, sitting on a bench waiting for the next bus out of town. The only sounds were "mhm" and "yeah" while Falco was on the phone, when finally, the bus came around and picked them up. Falco ended the call as they entered the loud and busy bus.

VIII

They took their seats as the three men in black came on the bus with heavy guns. "Where is Starfox?" One yelled searching the long bus. Searching every seat. The whole bus went quiet. "We want to see Starfox, dammit!" The other one said and shot the bus roof. Fox put his foot out on the bus alley as the gunmen came closer. The first gunman tripped on Fox's foot, which sent him flying. The gunmen then shot up the bus like crazy.

"Falco, take the second one down to the floor!" Fox loudly commanded. Falco jumped out of his seat and tackled the second gunman, taking his gun and destroying it. Falco pinned him down and choked him, while Fox threw the first one out the window. The third one had escaped the bus via the big front window. They started to run toward the bike and gas shop they had visited earlier.

"Steal the bikes!" Fox roared. The man became furious. Slippy was surprised the bikes had fuel in them and started to shoot oncoming houses. "Don't let them live!" Fox commanded over the walkie-talkie as he shot up a shop and two houses down a block. Falco was riding down a street when he saw someone approach him with a similar bike. Falco abruptly turned down a broken road as he became airborne for a few seconds.

"Fox to everyone, we're out of here." Fox announced. "Err, Fox, there's several of 'em on bikes chasin' me down." Falco responded. "Just, get out of there." Peppy snapped. Falco zoomed out of the village as he saw the rest of the team's bikes. "Shoot 'em down for me, Fox." Falco commanded. Fox shot back at the roadwild sandbandits as they fell of their bikes. "Alright, let's get out of this village and not turn back." Fox said as he unraveled his sleeping blanket.

"Guys, there's nowhere else for us to sleep. I'm afraid we'll have to stay here for the night.

" Fox sighed as he started to roll out their sleeping blankets. Slippy coughed up sand everywhere. "He don't look too good…" Falco was concerned. He laid on his side and dozed off.

IX

The next day, they had approached a base. "Let's see if these guys are good." Falco said as he knocked on the door. A weaponmaster had opened the door and cocked his gun fast. "Who the hell are you, and who sent you here?" The middle-aged neurotic man spastically pointed his gun at them. "Woah, woah, we're not here to hurt you, we just want to know if you can give us hospitality for at least a couple of hours. We've been riding through the desert and we haven't found one friendly person." Peppy calmed him down.

The old man sighed. "Fine, come on in, sit down." He let them in. The houses walls were made from sandstone and the floor was sand. "It is true what you said about no one being friendly in the desert. They've been isolated for so long they've gone crazy and forgot any morals they learned." The old man inspected Doris from head to toe. "Hey, isn't that a UTAA uniform you have on?" He said to Doris. "Yes." he answered quietly.

"There had been recent reports of one going missing. Are you the one?" He asked. "Yes. I just started to realize how corrupt that army is, I'm going with Star Fox." Doris said. When the old man heard Star Fox, he thought he had lost it. "Wait a minute, you're Star Fox?" The man paused. "Yes, positive." Fox replied firmly. "I'm so glad you got those crazy villagers to stop wreaking havoc all over the desert." The man thanked them.

"No problem, what's your name, so we can remember who you are." Fox asked. "Retafindopolotapodafflesamuel, or Sam for short." The man responded. "How did you get such a long name?" Slippy asked. "My parents wanted my name to be unique to everyone else's." The man responded as a giant hovering noise came outside the house. "I think the CARA's here!" Falco yelled in happiness as he ran outside.

The giant ship landed on the ground as two guards greeted them. "Buenas noches, how are you, team?" The guard greeted Star Fox. "We're doing well, thank you. This our friend, Sam." Fox greeted Sam to the CARA guards. "A mighty pleasure to meet you. Thank you for helping them." Sam politely responded. "No problem." He said as Star Fox got on the ship and zoomed away.

X

"So, guys, how was your mission that MacBeth assigned you?" General Pepper asked. "It was pretty difficult, they were strong." Krystal said. The rest of the team nodded their heads in agreement. "I'm really tired, I'm just gonna lay down on the couch and watch some news." Fox yawned. Fox would always relax after a tiring mission. Falco didn't.

" _This is Max with today's CSD5 news at 11. Recent reports have shown that the galactic army of Star Fox had killed nearly a city of innocent people. Allegedly 11,000 have been killed, a beaucoup of people. This is a major disappointment and has ruined Star Fox's reputation surely. We will hear an apology from them soon. This story has a chance of being fake and are, right now, accusations made from the MacBethian news company. This is Max, signing off."_

The whole team listened, and of course, Falco was the first to speak from them. "MacBeth framed us! We didn't know we were killing innocent people!" Falco headed to the pilot room. "C'mon Falco, where 'ya goin'?" Fox sped up. Falco changed the course from Corneria to MacBeth. "Those damned MacBethians, they will pay!" Falco yelled at the top of his lungs.


	3. Chapter 3 - MacBeth

**AUTHORS NOTES: This chapter was more rushed than expected, sorry. The whole 'Fourend' thing will be more thoroughly during Chapter 4.**

I

2:12 PM - MacBeth Bombs and Supply Depot, Syel City

As he was almost done with his work shift at the supply depot, Ron walked down the stairs to his boss's office to get his paycheck. "Here's your weekly pay of $626.36, Ron. You did a nice job this week." Ron's boss was proud. "Thanks boss." Ron said as he walked toward the doors.

Ron walked in the way of Fox's newly built Landmaster, crashing through the doors and was crushed to death. Fox shot the walls around him causing the bombs to unlock and make them explode. The whole place rumbled and rattled as the support beams fell and crushed many people. The whole building fell.

"Come on, we need to get to the news tower!" Falco commanded. Their Landmasters sped throughout the city to the news tower. "Unload, we're breaking in!" Fox announced as they broke down the hinges to the front door killing four receptionists.

"They produce the news at the top of the tower, come on!" Peppy yelled as he sprinted up the stairs.

"Geez, when was Peppy so athletic?" Slippy asked. "I don't know, I swear about 2-3 weeks ago, it looked like he let himself go." Falco replied.

Meanwhile on the ship…

"Have you been working for MacBeth?" General pointed a gun straight at Doris' head.

"No!" He argued. "Then why were you in the UTAA?" General yelled back. "I needed to run away from the planet's army that agreed to frame you guys, so I wouldn't have the blame for it. Besides, why would I help destroy a team that risk their lives everyday for our galaxy's safety?" Doris replied. General slowly put down the gun he had on the white desk in front of the interrogation window.

"You're right, Doris. I should have known about this all along. I'm apologetic for all of this." General said as he uncuffed Doris and led him out of the room. "Can I go down to where the mission is?" Doris asked. "It's too late now, I'm afraid. It will be a lot better if you are patient and not abruptly join the mission with the severely high chance of getting killed." General responded taking a deep breath afterward.

Back on the ground…

Fox sprinted up the stairs faster than anyone, leaving everyone behind. "Fox, could you at least wait for us, you dolt." Falco insulted while panting like a dog in the summer. "Sorry, Falc." Fox said as the rest of the team slowly ran up the stairs. "This is the main news office. Slippy, put the petard on the door." Fox commanded. Slippy threw the petard hard. "Breaching, breaching, breac-" Fox was cut off as the door had blasted open.

Paper flew everywhere while the bullets were cutting through printing machines and copy machines. "Help! Help! 911!" The news anchor yelled as he ran to the roof. "Don't let that damned news anchor get away!" Peppy shouted. Falco climbed the same ladder to the roof. "Now don't you move." Falco shouted, not moving his beak.

"Look man, there's a lot less violent ways we can settle this." The weak news anchor tripped on the roof and couldn't move as he was full of terror. "No there isn't! You try to spread fake news about us to ruin our reputation. There is only one way to stop a spread. It's to kill it." Falco said. "How will you stop the spread that you killed me." He responded. "We'll be heroes once they hear the news." Falco said gritting his teeth as he pulled the trigger. "I'll make sure of that." He walked away with blood on his feathers.

"I'm planting the bomb now." Fox announced. He climbed up the ladder to the roof, to where Falco was standing. "Falco. First floor. Now." Fox said while the team were zipping down the stairs. Krystal was ahead of the others. She got cocky and tried to speed up more, but she fell down two flights of stairs. "Krystal!" Fox called out. Krystal was bleeding on her face. "Babe, are you okay? Slippy get your first aid!" Fox commanded. Slippy patted his pockets and started to panic. "Where's the first aid?" Fox panicked along with Slippy. "I don't know!" Slippy started to break down, crying on the floor. "There's no time to cry right now, we have to board the Great Fox and get the hell out of here!"

Fox carried Krystal in his arms as he headed to the back door. The sight he saw was terrifying. "Damn! Guards blocking the back exit!" Fox said while Slippy was still hysterical. "General!" Fox yelled in the walkie-talkie, "Get your old tail down here now! We need evac!" He ended the call. The "Great Fox" shot all around the building where the guards were standing. The lasers, first, burning through their armor, and second, burning through their skin and muscles. "Get in!" Pepper yelled as the team ran into the hangar. The hangar closed, but the ship was still shot at. "We're taking her to the hospital." Peppy moved through people to get there.

II

They put Krystal in a stretcher and took her away. Fox had to wait outside of the room.

He had sat down for what seemed like an eternity. He had no stationery to write on to write down ideas. "Hey, Falco." Fox called out to Falco in a sort of sobbing tone in his voice. "Yeah, Fox." Falco said, tired. "Do you know when we get to see Krystal." Fox said on the brink of tears. He had multiple cuts and burns on his hand and God knows how many all over his body. "They said another nine hours. I recommend you get some sleep. You can see her in the morning, Fox." Falco advised him. Fox then went to bed.

Beep...beep...beep...beep...be-

Fox slammed down his alarm clock in annoyance, wanting to sleep longer. He had almost broke it. Fox remembered he had to go meet Krystal in the hospital room. He didn't suit up in his usual fighting armor. He put on the closest thing he could reach in his closet and jogged down the hallway.

Knock, knock, knock. The nurse slowly opened the door to see Fox. "Hello, are you here to see Krystal?" The nurse asked. "Yes, I am." Fox moved forward toward the hospital bed.

The room had a funky smell. A smell Fox hated, Pine Sol. It had no decorations and felt like, sometimes, the room needed to be "jazzed up." Fox knelt down near the bed, as it was very short in height. Krystal recognized Fox's face and a light grin came across her face. "Fox, how are you?" She said in a feeble tone of voice. "I'm great. I just wanted to come in and see how you were doin'. Seeing that you had a pretty bad fall down the stairs." Fox said, filled with contentment.

"They told me I had temperate brain trauma. They said they'll give me medication as soon as I'm out of the hospital." Krystal explained. Her dark blue skin became lighter ever since the accident, and Fox had noticed. The nurse heedlessly tapped Fox's shoulder. "Your time of visiting is up, McCloud." Fox looked at her wistfully. "Oh, ok." Fox walked out of the room, back to the living room of their temporary "Great Fox."

Fox grabbed a new newspaper that ROB had ordered, off the table and sat down in his recliner. He read: Titania and MacBeth are planning to secede from the Lylatian Federation, made by the official Cornerian government. They have plans to secede because, supposedly, Venom has interfered with their economies and Corneria is doing nothing about it. They have been doing dirty business with MacBeth's greatest friend, Zoness. The amount of radical refugees escaping to Zoness from Titania and MacBeth has skyrocketed. Venom's population as well. MacBeth and Titania are losing their population by the minute. Why is this bad news? Because the amount of revenue the planets get each month is decreasing, destroying their economy and raising debts. Zoness has advertised all over MacBeth and Titania to escape their home planets for a new "better" life on Zoness. Titania and MacBeth are seceding August 11, 2276, it being a month from now. This plan is nascent. MacBeth has raged out with antarchism.

III

Fox was shocked to hear the news. "Falc! Get over here." He called to Falco. Falco came running from his bedroom and around the corner. "What, what, what?" Falco questioned. "MacBeth has been done framing us, but they wrote how, we're not doing anything to stop with the whole End Four Planet Movement." Fox explained. "So what, they're all corrupt wastelands of planets, let them secede." Falco argued. "I feel their reasoning for seceding is that we don't help these planets. These planets are part of the LF, and feel as though we should treat them equal to the rest of the planets." Fox said. "We can't ALWAYS help them. They should figure out their problems and fix them themselves." Falco said.

Peppy had stepped inside the kitchen going to grab something to eat, maybe some lamb's lettuce, as he heard Fox and Falco arguing louder than before in the living room. "Sounds like they're getting pretty rowdy." Peppy slowly said under his breath. "Well maybe all planets should be treated the same!" Fox howled at Falco. "Well maybe we should leave these planets to secede and die because they have tiny influence, army strength, economy, and or mentally stable people!" Falco shouted at the top of his lungs.

"Woah, woah, woah, boys calm down." Peppy had to interfere. Falco stood there thinking. "I was about to tear this fox's throat out. Garrulous vulpine...and Peppy has to interfere. Unbelievable." "Listen guys, we're setting our next course for Venom. There's been suspicious activity, I've gotten messages sent to us from Venom." Peppy walked toward the front control room as he started up the computer.

"I haven't looked at all the names of who sent me these videos and messages." Peppy started to scroll through all 910 messages. He came upon a familiar name. Wolf O'Donnell. "Open it, open it!" Fox said with hesitation. The file loaded as a high pan buzzing sound came over the monitor's speakers. It sounded like construction in the background.

"Star Fox, I know you get a bunch of messages daily, but this one is crucial. You need to come to Venom soon, we're working on a project. You will get a large amount of money in return, but you all have to use It wisely. It will take too long for me to explain the procedures. I know it may seem shady and all, but you have to trust me. There's a way to get Titania and MacBeth back to Lylatian Federation. I know nobody has told you, but Fortuna is also planning to secede. Wolf, out."

"Does this fool really think we are going to help him?" Falco asked while relaxing in his recliner. "Falco, we've got a big deal on our hands. A money deal." Fox spoke in a gravelly voice. "You aren't saying…." Falco started. "Oh, I'm saying." Fox responded. "We… rebuild Fourend's economy!"

"We… get back Fourend's territory!"

Falco and Fox said their plans at the same time. Peppy heard both of their plans through jumbled mess of sounds that were their voices speaking at the same time.

"Well, before we rebuild their economy, we have to get Fourend back to the Lylatian Federation, as well as Fortuna." Peppy explained. Fox had agreed to Peppy's statement. Peppy chuckled as he typed in the setcourse for Venom. The Great Fox zoomed off from the hellish hotland of MacBeth to the smelly, muddy, dirty, swampy, humid atmosphere of Venom. "Mission MacBeth is over… for now." Slippy said. "Damn right, Slippy." Fox said back.


	4. Chapter 4 - Venom

I

As the Great Fox landed, Krystal was the first to walk out. Preppy and tall. She had recovered well and was ready for another mission. When she walked out she was hit with a wave of strong, dirty stench and a massive wave of heat. Krystal plugged her nose. "It smells like the countryside in Corneria on a Monday." She spoke through her hand. "Yeah, it does." Slippy admitted. Slippy looked around. "Where is Wolf, he was supposed to be here right now-."

"Hello." Wolf said in his usually gravelly voice. Slippy screamed as Wolf had creeped up to him and made him jump. Wolf chuckled. "I'm not here to hurt you kiddo, I'm here to make a deal with your furry friends, you amphibian." Wolf had said in a more serious tone. "So Wolf, what's the money on the table." Fox asked. "Ten mill, boss thought that would be 'nough." Wolf said.

"Who's this little guy?" Wolf asked while looking at Doris. "I'm Doris, I come from UTAA, not as spy but escapee." Doris replied. "Err… don't look like a spy." Wolf said inspecting his uniform that was still, mildly covered in sand. "Well, boss will take a look at ya'. You look like a proficient fighter, young man, Doris." Wolf complemented. "Thank you very much… err… what is you name?" Doris asked. "Wolf. Wolf O'Donnell." He responded.

"Who's this boss, Wolf?" Fox raised an eyebrow, being suspicious of Wolf. "Tommy Ocelot, the leader of the Anti-End Fourend. He didn't really trust himself with that amount of money and thought that if you guys were against the End Fourend movement, and you guys are Star Fox after all, you could use it a lot more responsibly than him." Wolf explained. "In check or cash upfront?" Fox asked. "Of course it's check, you blockhead." Wolf gave Fox a nuggie.

"Ten mill's a lot of money. Ton of people ain't know that." Peppy said slowly. "Ol' man's right, pup." Wolf assured him. Fox became angered. "I've dealt with ten mill before! Trust me!" He argued. "If you say so. The check won't come until the mission I have for you is accomplished, 'ya got me?" Wolf firmly asked. "Yes." Fox said as he was full of anger, his face turning red. "Aww, look! The kiddo's blushing!" Wolf was tossing Fox around. Fox nearly had an outburst, but he could contain his anger quite well.

"Alright, Wolf are we done messing around and can we get to the mission now?" Peppy asked angrily. "Err...yes. Sorry for goofin'. C'mon kiddo!" Wolf called out to Fox quickly. Fox strolled over to Wolf. "We have to find Panther first. That damned predator ran away when we were fuelin' up. Fun thing is, I know where he works. Get in." Wolf angrily opened his car door. That name, that one name sent shivers down Krystal's spine. She wanted to speak to Wolf as her fear tried to overcome her. "You drive, pup. I trust you." Wolf said to Fox.

Krystal lightly tapped Wolf on the shoulder. She spoke in a weak, soft voice. "Err… Wolf. Could you at least put me out of Panther's sight when you find him?" Krystal asked. He knew all about what Krystal went through with Panther and he sighed. "Yes, for your safety." Wolf comforted her. "If Panther does get his hands on 'ya, I'll give 'em the ol' one two!" Fox said. "Calm down, pup. That won't be necessary."

Wolf walked up to a gas station. "Wait here." He said as he ran into the gas station with a bag. The team'd obeyed as they sat there in silence. The silence became more awkward by the second and Slippy couldn't take it. They heard a loud bang in the gas station which got their attention. They saw Wolf sprinting out of the store with a bag in his hand. The bag was loose and some currency flew out. "Go, go, go, step on it!" Wolf demanded as Fox used all of the force in his foot pushing the gas down.

"What the hell did you do in there?" Falco asked while trying to climb to the front seat. "I robbed it." Wolf sighed. "Why did you rob it? I heard a gun, who did you kill?" Fox asked quickly. "I killed the cashier, Panther." He responded slowly. Fox was shocked and sat there saying nothing along with the rest of Starfox. Wolf got his cigar pack out of his pocket.

"You smoke?" Falco asked slowly. "Yeah, not as much as Leon though. That cross-patch is gonna get lung cancer soon, just wait. Then it'd be just me on the team." Wolf said. "It's not a team if there's only one person." Fox said. "True." Wolf agreed as he started to light up his cigar. "If, eventually, he does die, guess there's no other choice to join you guys." He said as he blew smoke out the car window. Fox nodded his head in a tired manner.

II

"Fox, this is the address boss gave me. Let's just hope this is correct." Wolf said as he flung the car door open. He was done with his cigar and threw it on the ground. He opened the door as Fox, Falco, Slippy, Krystal, Peppy and Doris followed. Wolf had his gun in his shoulder. "This is Star Fox. You will have 11 minutes and 25 seconds to compromise and or comply. If you don't do those things in the aforementioned time, you will be forced. Either come out with your hands up or wait." Wolf recited.

Eventually, the time of 11 minutes and 25 seconds passed and the team started to infiltrate rooms. "Falco, southwest. Slippy, northeast. Krystal, southeast. Doris, northwest. Peppy, north. Wolf, south. I'll go east and I'll save the west for later." Fox quickly told the directions to them and they followed. Fox barged through the door, but something seemed off when he did.

There was no one in the room. No windows have been broken and no decor has been raveled. He coughed as the place seemed a bit dusty. "Fox to Wolf, I'm not seein' anybody in 'ere, copy." "Wolf to Fox, same here, man. This whole place just seems off, copy." "Falco to Fox and Wolf, I don't see nothing either. Either this place is abandoned or these folks are extremely well at hidin', copy."

Fox's ears perked up as he heard crying from a room to the west. His ears immediately dropped. He opened the door as he saw a man crying in his work chair. "Err...hello?" Fox called out. The crying man looked up at him with puffy eyes and stuffy nose. "Oh. Hello." He said in a weak wobbly voice. "What happened to everyone? Where did they go?" Fox asked. "They've abandoned me. I was left all alone." He said. "Who's they?" He asked. "Tommy. Tommy Ocelot and his men." The man responded.

"Fox to Wolf, I'm gonna need you to come in here. I got a code SA1 on our hands. Notify everyone, copy." Fox sent to Wolf. Code SA1 meant Suspicious Activity, SA2 means Supply Ammo. Wolf opened the door slowly as he entered the room. It was eerily silent. The weak man looked up at Wolf. "He's a monster compared to me." The man thought. Soon Falco, Doris and the rest of the team entered through the door. Falco was the first to speak out from the bunch.

"Are you OK, man? Something happen?" Falco asked. The man explained. "Tommy Ocelot and his men had strapped me to this chair. I've been stuck here for, what seems to be, 48 hours. He's lost it, gone insane." "So, if my boss, Tommy Ocelot, gave this address and nearly everyone had left and you're an employee working for him…" Wolf started to plan. "It was because I 'ticked him off', but I didn't. I did nothing to him and all of a sudden he's starting to get destructive." He said.

"If this guy runs a big corporation, starts to get destructive and leaves their workers to die, he's obviously quit on trying to get Fourend back together." Fox said. Wolf's phone started to ring in his pocket. "What the hell? Who could be ringing me at this time in a mission?" Wolf looked at his phone. "Oh, great it's boss." Wolf sighed as he picked up the phone. It was completely silent on the other end of the call. Tommy quickly answered the phone.

"Err… hell...o...Wolf. I ju...st wan...ted to cal...l and see ho...w you're doi...ng." His voice was cutting out. "Sir, your voice sounds like it's cutting out." Wolf said. The call ended right after he said that. Wolf attempted to call back as no one answered. "What is with this phone service." Wolf raged. "Wait, who called?" The weak man buzzed. "My, well, our boss, Tommy." He said. "What did he say, I've heard and seen the phone ring multiple times. I answered it once and he said he wanted to see how I was doing. Strange, though he left me to die." He said.

"Can I listen?" The man asked. "Why?" Wolf asked back. "Every time I answered the phone, it sounded like the exact same recording." The man conspired. "Fine, fine. Here." Wolf reluctantly handed the man his phone. Wolf was never as nice as giving a stranger his phone. Not for a second. The man played the recording back close enough to his ear to hear. He handed it back to Wolf. "It's the exact same one. It cut out and everything." He said.

"Strange." Wolf started to conspire in his mind. "Maybe it's a goodbye message from him. We don't know." Fox chimed in. "Well, we are about to find out." Wolf said as he started to untangle and cut the ropes that were tied around the weak man. The man stood up and felt like a totally different person. "Thank you, very much. My arms are gaining circulation again." He said as he moved his hands in a circular motion while walking around the room. He was finally unfettered and winsome.

"Bro, we need to know your name." Falco said to the man. "Oh, my name is Mary." He said. Falco chuckled. "That doesn't sound like a male name!" Falco tried his hardest to contain his laughter. Fox punched Falco in the arm playfully. "Falco, come on, be nice. Sorry, Mary, my friend can really be a prat sometimes. Don't take things he says literally all the time." Fox said. Falco still was chuckling.

Soon, Wolf and Doris started to snicker quietly in the corner throwing his name about every couple of seconds and when they did, they laughed louder. "Come on guys, it is not that funny." Fox yelled to them in an almost exasperated tone. Wolf slightly frowned as Doris followed him out of the door of the room. "Follow us, Mary. I'll take ya to Wolf's car." He said as he picked him up and brought him outside.

Mary opened the door and slammed it as he sat in the comfy backseat. "Geez, Mary, you sure are forceful." Wolf said as he lightly chuckled. He started up the car and drove away from the given address. "I didn't know our boss would do something like this. He's gone mad. If he eventually, does leave, it could be the end of a galaxial federation, a big deal." Wolf said in a worryful way. Fox started to realize how much chaos would spread if he eventually did end it.

III

The Cornerian press and news sources almost started to go into an all-out riot mode when they heard they would split. Corneria was the leader of the Lylatian Federation. Of course, the leader should be the strongest of the planets. If these planets split, there could be a hoard of money and power lost. Also, they could rise to power by making a strong army, becoming a stronger, larger Venom. That is what Andross wanted.

"Andross...Andross...Andross." Fox thought through his mind. "You don't think Andross is cajoling Tommy into stopping this galaxy-wide campaign?" Fox asked. A light bulb went off in Wolf's mind. "That is a plausible theory. Cajoling isn't really the right word. He suborned him? Yeah, that sounds better. Anyway, we don't know yet, and we won't know until we get to the HQ. It's been a while since I've seen boss." Wolf said as he opened his car window. He loved to let his fur out of the window. The only downside was, it smelled terrible outside.

Wolf's sentence was one of the last times people talked on the extensive car ride. Wolf became really irritated that no one was talking. He was a civil, "yakkin' about nothing" sort of guy. "Come on, guys! Talk about something! You guys are so silent, it's weird." Wolf whined. "What is there to talk about?" Fox asked. "Eh, we're almost to the HQ anyway, you guys behave when we get there." Wolf told them.

"We know Wolf, we're not kindergarteners!" Slippy retaliated. Wolf looked slightly irritated as he stopped the car. "We're here!" Wolf said. Fox peeked out the window. "There's nothing here!" He said. "Exactly, now come on." Wolf walked out into a small farm. There was a small post with a speaker. There was a button underneath it. He pressed the button as the speaker reluctantly spoke. "Code word?" It asked. "Amphisbaena." Wolf said the long word into the speaker as the floor opened.

Fox and the rest of them stood there in awe as the field opened and a white, bright stairwell showed. "Well, are you gonna stand there like vegetables or follow me downstairs?" Wolf asked, annoyed. The team followed and looked at the walls. The walls were painted a pretty shiny white as well. Fox's lamp-black colored arms were behind his back. It looked conspicuously like a music video set. Krystal was almost blinded by the light in the hallway after the stairs.

"How do you handle with this brightness, Wolf?" She asked as her eyes were nearly fully closed. "I got used to it pretty easily, kind of pissed me off the first few times." He said as he walked toward the elevator. "Right now, we're on the 12th floor. Boss is always on the third, we should see him there." He said as he pressed the down button. The elevator came with its significant dinging sound. "WELCOME TO EFEHQ." The robot voice came over the speaker.

The elevator was playing jazz music. Slippy couldn't help but start dancing. "Slippy, what are you doing?" Falco said while giggling. "W'd'ya think? I'm dancin'." He said. "You won't be dancing for long once we get to the third floor, fool." Wolf said. "Why do you have to be such a buzzkill?" Slippy asked in an angry tone. "My employees I work with and I am friends with will think I'm a nutcase." Wolf said through his fangs, bitterly. No sound of raillery in his voice.

IV

The elevator opened and Wolf walked toward Tommy's office. He knocked, no answer. He tried to knock again, still no answer. "I'm about to barge down this lunatic's door." Wolf said loudly. Tommy was inside the room and he wouldn't answer anyone. He heard Wolf call him a lunatic. "Oh great. It's Wolf." He murmured under his breath. Outside the door Wolf whispered in Mary's ear. "When I say go, you have to say your name. Once he knows you're here, there's a chance he'll come outside."

One of Wolf's most valuable friends and partner in adventure and crime, Leon came up to him. He had just gotten out of jail. "Don't even bother trying to get his door open. He's been stuck there for three days. His door is strong, strongest out of everyone." He explained. "Look, Leon, we aren't going to give up until he budges his lazy tail off his seat and open his damned door." Wolf gritted his teeth. "Alright, good luck then." Leon started to walk away.

"Oh, wait, Leon. I need to tell you something." Wolf said as his face darkened. "What. What is it." He flapped his arms in the air. "Panther died. He got shot in the head. Some guy killed him." Wolf lied about the 'some guy' part. Leon was shocked at the news as he looked at the floor. "I know. It's alright. I loved him too." Wolf lied again. Leon just walked away the most depressed he's been this past month and sat back down in his cubicle.

The building didn't allow smoking but Leon pulled his pack out of his pocket anyway. He lighted up and started typing and making and answering phone calls. "See what I mean, Fox? He's tearin' that pack down." Wolf justified his claim he made earlier in the car. Wolf couldn't stand waiting. "Go." He signaled Mary. "Open the door, Tommy, It's your neglected employee, Mary." He yelled. It got Tommy's attention. He started to think.

"No, that can't be him. He can't be right outside my door, unless Wolf had something to do with it." He started to creak the door open as Wolf barged through, making him fly back and roll on the floor. He gripped his hurting knee. "Wolf, you bastard… why would you do this?" He whispered in pain. "Why would I do this? Why would YOU do this?" Wolf asked back, exasperated. "Are you trying to destroy our galaxy's unification?" Fox asked.

Redundant voices were asking him redundant questions. His mind couldn't take it, as he has already gone mad. "Stop! You are all wrong! Let these planets die." Falco said. Everyone in the room except Tommy gave Falco a nasty scowl. "Are you serious?" Fox blurted out. "This mission is useless. These planets are dead anyway." Falco said. "The Lylatian Federation had only been founded two years ago! They're still developing!" Fox said.

"No. No they're not. We're using this money for the wrong reason." Falco said as Tommy kicked him in the back. Fox started swearing at him. "Do you know how damned important this mission is for the galaxy, Falco?" His voice was starting to crack as he started to lam Falco. "Boss hasn't lost it at all." Wolf said as Tommy had gotten up from the cold tile floor. "Damned bird! My money has been given for good reason and if you don't like it, then don't 'andle it!" The ocelot roared.

"Falco. Listen to what he said and stop makin' an ass out of yourself." Wolf said. Falco breathed slowly as he started to calm down. "You know what, you're right." Falco said as he got off the floor. The door wasn't shut all the way and employees could hear and see the fight through a slight crack in the door. "I'm sorry if I was being an idiot. You guys are right." Falco said in remorse. "Yeah, yeah just don't do it again Falco." Wolf said opening the door and exiting Tommy's office.

Wolf spoke back with Tommy. "Man, we thought you lost your mind. Glad to see your okay, boss." Wolf said, relieved. "I didn't lose my mind. What are you talking about?" He asked. "Oh, you know, you neglected your employee, Mary." Wolf said. "I didn't neglect him. I punished him. He was causing a lot of trouble. Thing is, he's a great liar." He said. "Hold on, boss. I'm going to have a little talk with Mary." Wolf shut the door as he booted toward Mary.

"Wait, wait, wait. Wolf, I just wanna say, I'm sorry." He said. "Why are you saying sorry to me?" Wolf asked. "In the letter I sent you I accidentally copy-and-pasted the wrong address." He said. "Why did you accidentally copy-and-paste that address?" Wolf asked. "Because I was going to copy-and-paste that address to a different letter. A letter to my men to set fire to that building, the one Mary was stuck in, I'm sorry." He apologized.

"Well, what was the address you were going to send me?" Wolf asked. "4957 Larry Street, in Venomia City. You know the place, about twenty miles from here. Both addresses are horrible places. You may want to get any lasting survivors out of that building." Tommy demanded Wolf. "Ok. I just wanted to make sure you were alive. That's the only reason I came to Venom after all. I will make sure that my team understands of the situation." Wolf assured Tommy as he walked, again, toward Mary.

V

"I know you're lying, Mary." Wolf jumped in front of Mary, cornering him. "I don't know what you're talking about." Mary said. "Boss is the most honest man I know, and I know he wouldn't lie about a little piece of filth like you. I bet he wants to expose all your truths." Wolf breathed in his face. "Boss is lying!" Mary said back. Wolf slapped Mary in the face and lifted his coat, along with his body.

"Hey Wolf. Bring Mary over here. I'll give 'em the ol' Wolf O'Donnell treatment." Tommy said as Wolf walked toward him with a big grin on his face. He threw Mary in a chair and tied him up. Wolf turned off the lights and turned on a little dangling lightbulb. Tommy got out his tripod and camcorder and pressed record. "Tape 704, action!" Tommy said as he started the video. "Anything you want to say, Mary?" Wolf asked, standing next to him.

"No." He said after thinking a while. "Good." Tommy got a fork out of his drawer and drawed it toward his left eye. The fork rapidly went through Mary's eye as he was screaming. "Aaaaaaaggggggggghhhhhhh!" He held his bleeding eye socket. Tommy held the fork, which was holding Mary's eyeball, in his hand twirling the fork around playfully. "Look, it's his eye!" Wolf said laughing. "And cut!" Tommy ended the video.

Tommy and Wolf left the room and locked it shut. Mary was trapped in that room forever. Left to starve. This wasn't a harsh punishment to him. It was kind of like putting a preschooler in time-out. Mary actually got his eye back. Mary's punishment was palpebral damage, which was not a harsh punishment in Tommy's books. Fox and the rest of them were waiting down the hall from Wolf. He sprinted toward them. "We have a new mission assigned by Tommy. I'll explain once we get in the car." Wolf said as blood was covering Wolf's leather jacket.

"What happened? There's blood all over your jacket." Krystal asked. "Err… I just got a cut on my stomach." Wolf lied. He pressed the down button on the elevator. The robot then said goodbye to them. "THANK YOU FOR COMING TO EFEHQ." The robot thanked them. "You're welcome robot." Slippy said giggling. "Jeez, Slippy, you are such a stooge." Falco said and couldn't help but smile. You didn't see Falco smile that often. He was stern and blunt most of the time.

Wolf ran out to his car as he opened the door. The car started. The car was a beater, Wolf liked driving those around. It started to drive downhill as they saw the city, big tall factory buildings polluting the air. The city was surrounded by messy and mangled powerlines. They constantly had problems with the power going out and powerlines falling down, due to them being so cheap.

"Hold on, guys. We're whizzin' over these roads." Wolf said as his speedometer read "84 MPH". He made a sharp turn which made Slippy and Doris sick to their stomachs. They couldn't complain though, it was a fun ride. It was like a rollercoaster ride whenever Wolf was in a hurry. The car was now in the city as Wolf turned into Downtown.

VI

"Arriving to address in 800 feet." The robot GPS voice said. Wolf stopped the car abruptly as they all got out. The building was on fire as wood was falling like snow. Wolf was speed-walking to the back door as he flung it open. Fox started to shoot active hackers in the room. They all screamed in terror. "Is this how I'm gonna die?" A hacker thought hiding under a table in the kitchen with his hand on his head. Slippy went in with a pump shotgun and destroyed furniture. Falco stole all food supplies they had left. Though this wasn't left of the group. There were many more in Fourend's Arspace. Mostly toward Zoness.

"I'm calling for CARA support this time, Falco." Krystal said out of the corner of Falco's hearing. "Alright, alright. You can call 'em." Falco said as he sat on one of the kitchen chairs. "So. This really could be the end of Andross once and for all." Fox said. "Of course. I can't believe I worked for someone that scummy before." Wolf said with no remorse. "It was all for my friend Andrew, after all." Wolf started to tear up.

You rarely ever saw Wolf cry. This was among the few times that he actually did. He didn't cry when his father or mother died. Didn't cry when a girlfriend of his broke up with him. Wolf was hardhearted, but it seemed at this moment that he really wasn't. Wolf went outside to see a giant aircraft hovering. The few remaining grass particles were blowing like the wind. It landed in the alley.

"Hello, team. We have arrived for pickup. Is there any injuries?" The guard had asked. Doris looked at all of his friends. "No, sir. Some minor injuries that can go away though, like Wolf getting a cut in his stomach." Doris firmly replied. Wolf laughed. "That wasn't a cut. I was lying. Someone else's blood got onto my jacket." He assured both the guard and Doris. "Wolf, come on board, we need you for this next mission." The guard demanded. "Well, I got nothing better to do." He said as he walked into the aircraft's hangar.

One by one, each member got on board to the temporary Great Fox and set off. "There is a new mission for you guys. This time being Zoness." The guard said. "What must we complete sir?" Fox asked. "Wild and violent refugees have illegally emigrated to Zoness from Titania and MacBeth. You must destroy all wild refugees. We will assign you more information as we approach the planet." He explained. "Thank you, sir. I'll make sure to tell everyone." Fox assured.


	5. Chapter 5 - Zoness

I

Zonessian Arspace - 21:22 Hours - August 25, 2276

Zoness, during this time of the year, attracted a bunch of tourists wanting to get away from all the hustle and bustle of work and the everyday life. It was, of course, August, a perfect time to go on vacation. The flight traffic from Corneria to Zoness was the heaviest this time of year. The refugees thought if that Zoness during this time of year, attracted most tourists, they had more people to terrorize and or kill.

The Great Fox landed on the island of Arce, a hidden military island that wasn't known by most of the public. The hangar opened and Fox trotted outside. The sound of crickets were in the air as well as 100% humidity.

He walked outside in the calm night into a hut he was assigned to arrive to. Fox knocked on the hut's wooden door. "Hello, you, I guess, are Fox." The man opened the door, flies circling his face. "Err...yes. May I come in?" He asked. "Of course, yes. That's why I brought you here." The man said as he unrolled a giant map of Zoness City. "You know I can look a map up on my phone, right?" Fox was worried.

"I prefer to use old ways of living. I'm not tech savvy at all. Not one ounce in my blood." The man laughed. "Well, if you were to come to Corneria, there'd be no way for you to survive." Fox laughed hardly. The man also had a share of laughs from that comment. The man's face hardened slowly. "Well, I like joking around, but let's get to the point I'm trying to get across here." He said. Fox's ears perked up and his face toughened.

"Refugees are mainly rampant in downtown, but do you keep in mind that there many more in the suburbs and rural outskirts. They are also boarding boats illegally, which means it can be easier to invade other islands. This can mean that the entire planet of Zoness can be under control by these terrorists. There's also a pair of terrorists to announce our defeat. Yeah, good luck with that." The man explained the entire situation while walking outdoors. Fox looked at the sky as he saw a grey dot. It seemed to be an aircraft and shrugged it off.

Right outside his house was a nice big beach, being the entire planet is 99.135% water, there are islands spread out everywhere. The outside smelled of freshly grown greens, sand and water. "Hey, before the mission, you wanna quick drink?" The man asked. "Sure. Soda or beer because I don't really drink beer or liquor." Fox said. "Whatever you fancy." The man said. Fox followed the man to his car as they drove to the bar. The bar was located three minutes away, which made it convenient.

II

The bar wasn't busy at all. It only hosted a few people. Some being marines and some being government officials. It had an arcade and the waiters and waitresses didn't force you in a seat you didn't want to sit in. That explained a lot. "Let's sit on the second floor." Fox suggested, looking up. "Good idea. My favorite place to sit." The man agreed. The waiter eventually came as Fox and the man's, which Fox learned, name is Matt, came up and asked them for the drink they desired.

"What would you two fine gentlemen want to drink on this fine evening?" The waiter asked politely. "I'd like a Caramel Lite." Fox answered. "A Chilled Jam for me, please." Matt said. The waiter rapidly wrote down their drinks of choice and ran downstairs into the kitchen. Fox was looking outside of the window. He was waiting for the rest of his team. Fox and Matt were sitting at an octostand for a reason. He was waiting for the rest of the team to arrive. "I wonder why it's taking them so long to get here." Fox thought. He wanted to call them but decided to wait five more minutes. Those five minutes passed and Fox started to call them. Falco answered his phone.

"Fox we're almost there don't worry. Slippy just had a bit of an accident." Falco said slowly. "Oh great, what happened now?" Fox asked. "A...err…well, terrorist stabbed him in the arm. He's fine and bandaged though." Fox eyes widened as his jaw slightly dropped. "Ok." Fox said ending the call. "What happened?" Matt asked. "A terrorist stabbed my friend in the arm." Fox said. "This is just what I feared. Terrorists on this island." Matt grabbed Fox's hand and dragged him out of the bar's front door.

Falco's car arrived as it made a giant "skrrt" sound as it stopped in the gravel parking lot. Falco got out of the car. "It's true. There are multiple scans of terrorists on the island. We've to avoid any greenery, shrubbery and or some parts of the sand." Falco explained. "I'll call you when I'm in Matt's car. I'll have the car windows open the whole time." Fox assured Falco. "Ok." Falco got back in the car and got on to Hyiagawh 1 (means Highway/Route 1) and set off.

Fox was tailing Falco on the island-wide road. Terrorists from the island's forests emerged and started to shoot at the cars coming ahead. "Gotta run 'em over!" Wolf yelled into the phone. The two cars pretended as of the enemies were speed bumps and went airborne. "Woo-hoo!" Fox yelled swaying back and forth. "Got 'em copy." Falco said into the phone. "We got all of 'em here on this island. This ain't over yet." Slippy said as Falco stopped the car to let everyone out.

Everyone had their own custom-made Arwings prepared to go in the hangar. "You know how to fly one of these things Doris?" Peppy asked him. "Yes I do. I know how to fly decent but not as good as Starfox." He responded. Peppy just smiled as everyone hopped into the Arwings. Fox did roll call and everyone was there, of course. "Let's head off team. Let's show these wild refugees who they're really tampering with." Fox said as all Arwings took off from the hangar at tremendous speeds. To Zoness City Island, they headed.

III

Zoness City - 19:39 Hours - August 25, 2276

They landed on top of Zonesscyiat's highest hill. The hill was named Maaccaaw, named after the first royal family of Zoness, The Raloya Maaccaawluan. The team stormed down the hill as tanks flew by their eyes. "The military out here don't mess around." Falco was amazed. "Yeah, they sure don't. We sure don't either." Fox said. They looked down from the top of the hill. The hill had a little stone gate as a viewing point. What they saw was frightening.

The city was on fire. Every business in shambles, every house in ashes, every building destroyed. Fox couldn't look at it for much longer. "This has gone way too far for too long. This mission, we will use all our might, all our power to destroy them." Fox stated as they ran down a steep road to downtown. They finally got to downtown and saw the terror up close. Innocent beings of a vacation city, being set on fire.

"Let's call for our cars again." Falco said running into a nearby alley. Fox was curious to where Falco was going. He followed him and eventually caught up to him. "What are you doing out here? Terrorists can fly into here any minute!" Fox yelled. "Yeah, well our cars are being transported here any second!" Falco said. Sometimes he'd better comebacks than Fox. Falco was kind of proud of that one.

"Roader Model 7752 comin' down your way, partner." The racoon operator told Falco of the cars' arrivals. The racoon's name was Fredrik Stebhen, odd spelling his parents did. The cars landed lightly on the ground. Each car had a capacity of six. "Krystal, Doris, Wolf, Red car. Matt, Slippy, Peppy, get in the blue car. Let's move out." Fox said as he entered the blue car. Peppy started his engine while Wolf started his. The drivers were the oldest in the car. They exited the alleyway and went to the dangerous city streets.

The horror glorified Doris. He'd never seen such chaos before. Once, the planet was a happy vacation utopia everybody dreamed about going to some day. Now, it's a crumbling dystopia. The upside to fighting this battle was the help of the National Zonessian Army. They were highly trained and skilled to fight off big threats to their home planets and won't stop at anything until their planet is liberated.

"Our plan is to drive by the coast and work our way inward toward the city. I'll switch up our paths a bit to confuse these guys, copy." Wolf said. "That's a perfect plan. Thank you, copy." Peppy said as he explained to the teammates sitting in the back. "Evergreen Road… yep! This is the road by the ocean!" Wolf joyfully spun his car.

Wolf looked out to the sea with a disgusted look. "This is sea is so filthy and polluted. I wonder how many years it took to make this whole ocean green." Wolf thought. Doris looked out to the ocean as well. He thought the water looked OK to drink. The water back in Titania looked exactly like the water in Zoness' ocean. "You know something, Wolf?" Doris asked him. "What, chap?" He mumped. "The water we drank back in Titania looked exactly like this. I've never had such thing as clean water before." Doris said.

"You haven't? Well you are gonna love it when you try it. Krystal, can you get the cooler because I'm driving?" Wolf asked. "Of course." Krystal got out a nice, fresh, cold water for Doris. He tasted it. "Wow, this is amazing! I never knew water tasted this good." Doris complemented the water as if it won the Nobel Peace Prize. But now Doris felt sad that other Titanians like him couldn't get fresh water like him.

The two cars pulled over and used them for cover. "We have to stop all over-water vehicles from illegally speeding away, copy." Fox said. The blasters shot the boats' engines. The boat could not stand that much firepower and it exploded along with the pier. The explosion was so great that it knocked back Slippy and Peppy. Peppy's ear rang as his heart felt a sharp pain. He was coughing.

Fox sprinted as fast as he could over to Peppy to see if he was OK. But that wasn't the case. He was closer to death than any other mission they've done. "Peppy, can you hear me?" Fox's heart was racing as he was shaking Peppy. Peppy only saw blurs as his heart rate began to slowly fail. "Quick, call an ambulance, now!" Fox snapped. "I'm on it!" Slippy scurried.

"Great Fox Health Emergency Team, what's your emergency?" The operator asked. "Our teammate Peppy Hare is down and we don't think he'll make it!" Slippy said, tears rolling down his face like rain. "We've scanned your location and we're sending support quickly. Please stay on the line." The operator started to scan their location.

The aircraft quickly landed as they brought a stretcher out. A terrorist came out of an old worn building and shot Peppy in the stomach as they loaded him on. Fox quickly ducked for cover as the rest of the team did. Wolf shot the terrorist through the head, blood streaming endlessly. He fell on the ground. "That bastard got Peppy!" Wolf shot out. Fox just sat behind cover for a couple of minutes.

Fox thought of his whole life after that minute. Who got him to where he was know? Who cared for him nearly his entire childhood and adolescence? That's right, it was Peppy. Fox thought back to something Peppy said to him. He could vividly remember him saying it as it was so important to Fox. He could remember that it was said to him in tenth grade. Peppy said:

"All my life, I've been surrounded by nothing but terror." Kind of sounded like Fox's life. "But you'll always know and remember and apply this sentence into the real world. You can always get through the thick if you try. Even if that means me or you dyin'. Fox, I love you and will always love you, understand?" Fox remembered nodding to that and hugging Peppy. "If I die tomorrow, don't feel sad, sorry or bad. Feel happy that I was a part of your life and have got you to where you are now. Please. Your life is evermore valuable than mine." Fox remembered that day and wanted to cry.

This mission was far from over and made Fox want to die. "You can always get through the thick if you try." Fox remembered again. He applied it and went on. He stood up and marched to give orders. "Guys, look. Peppy may be down, but that won't stop us from completing the mission." Fox said. After that minute, the Zoness Army 'surrendered.'

IV

Falco thought of the plan he'd written down in the Great Fox and thought it'd be a good idea to share it now. "I have a plan. We overthrow TV broadcast with a fake victory message to trick the terrorists into thinking they won. It may sound scuffed to you, but I think it'll work out great." Falco said. Fox listened and thought it was the greatest idea Falco had come up with. "Wow, I am astonished." Fox said looking at the floor, not knowing what to say. "Say, how do we take over TV broadcast?" Slippy asked. "I'll show 'ya how." Falco said while grinning, evilly. "I've had this plan already written out." He stated.

Falco was an absolute mastermind, but he acted a lot like an idiot in front of his teammates, peers and friends. This is a log from his journal, which is now up for auction for $40.8 million.

Notes from Falco's Journal

Adv. 1 - We assassinate seven terrorists, getting their clothing as we disguise ourselves.

Adv. 2 - We assassinate in the Town Hall.

Adv. 3 - An pair will go through the front, a pair will go through the back. A trio will go through the roof.

Adv. 4 - We drive up to The Cosmopolitan Broadcasting System of Zoness, as the terrorists have vanquished the building already.

Adv. 5 - We announce to them that Starfox has been defeated.

Adv. 6 - Broadcast a live fake execution of Starfox.

Adv. 7 - We kill every producer, director, cameraman...everyone in the room. We don't want the word spreading out that this whole plan was fake. This maybe the most risky advance.

Adv. 8 - All terrorists will go to celebrate. Those who don't, die. (Hey, ZST. Know who your friends are 'cause they can tell me some very valuable information.)

Adv. 9 - My secret little weapon...

Falco brought out his burlap pocket that was near his left thigh. He drew seven Swiss Army knives. They were crafted by soldiers of the Swiss army near the Swiss Alps, pure as ever. He assigned the Swiss Army knives to the team as they opened.

Falco peeked toward the town hall. It was gigantic and dwarfed any nearby businesses.

"A pair will go through the front, a pair will go through the back. A trio will go through the roof." Falco recited and remembered from his notebook, which was residing in the Great Fox Mark III. Wolf and Fox followed as they opened their car doors. They started their engines as the assigned peoples went to their assigned cars.

They started off for the Town Hall. They parked in an alleyway near a striving business, a pancake house. Falco got out the ladder from his trunk and planted it in a corner with no windows. Perfect place to hide their doings. "We've to do this efficiently, there are still thousands of wild terrorists roaming the streets." Wolf said, hurrying. Fox, Falco and Wolf scaled the ladder. The path through the roof.

Slippy and Krystal made way through the rough shrubbery around the perimeter of the Town Hall. Sometimes getting scratches from walking too close to the concrete wall. They crouched and if they had to, crawled their way to the back entrance/exit. Krystal and Slippy were hiding in a big roomy bush as a terrorist came out from the door. There hadn't been a more silent moment in their lives. The terrorist had walked away and the coast was clear. The path through the back door.

Doris and Matt were to go to through the front. Yeah, of course no one will be at the front. Doris and Matt were the only ones allowed to possess a gun during the assassination, as their job was a lot harder to pull off with a knife with an 88% fatality rate on average. They believed themselves. They, as well, hid in the bushes as Slippy and Krystal did. They only needed one word from Falco to start. "Go." That was the word. The path through the front door.

Falco unraveled his hammer from his burlap pocket. He brought it close to a window on the town hall's dome. He started to mump. "3...2...1…Go."

V

Doris and Matt shot the two guards at the front of the town hall, efficient as ever, and dragged them to Falco's trunk. "Very deserted in this part of town for a Thursday…" Doris thought as he stuffed the guards' dead bodies forcefully in the tiny trunk. Doris and Matt then stripped the terrorists of their clothes and put them on. "What did this guy do to make his clothes smell so bad…" Matt thought. He went to a garbage can and started to disgorge what was left of his lunch. Part 1 of Advance 3 complete.

Krystal and Slippy busted down the back entrance/exit and slit two terrorists' throats. "Yan badarsat, yan kadielel myn brareohtluan!" (You bastards, you killed my brothers!) A wild terrorist started to spray in a 360 degree manner. Slippy leaped toward the underpart of a table as Krystal assassinated him. They both gathered their clothes and they'd had a similar reaction to Doris. They both plugged their noses. Part 2 of Advance 3 complete.

Falco broke the window belonging to the dome as Fox and Wolf descended through the means of a rope. Falco bursted through a meeting room as a terrorist was in the room, peacefully eating a cinnamon cookie. As Falco left the room, the cookie was a Red Velvet. Fox entered a bedroom and stabbed a man sitting on his bed. He silenced him and exited through the west second floor window. Wolf had caught one trying to escape and silenced him as the knife went through his heart. Part 3 of Advance 3 complete.

VI

They all escaped the same way they came out as the trio sped down the ladder, the pair came from the back and the pair came from the front. They sped off to CBSZ with it being nine minutes from their location. "If you keep driving at this rate, you'll arrive in seven minutes and four seconds." The GPS voice said aloud in Fox's car. "Perfect." He said with a smile. Fox then thought. "There's also like a pair of terrorists to announce our defeat." He thought back to when Matt was talking to him.

"We can have Doris and Matt be the pair to announce our defeat and 'execute' us." Fox was connecting pieces in his mind while driving. The two cars parked in the parking lot of CBSZ. Everyone except Doris and Matt took their clothes off. Doris and Matt pretended as they had captured them. "Psst, everyone. I got the ketchup packets. Paste 'em on the back of your head." Falco demanded, whispering. They all headed inside. The interior'd recently been decorated with the terrorists groups' flags.

Nearly all of them were getting dragged in by their feet. The stairs were a painful part. Every stair felt like hell. "How long is this staircase? When the hell will this suffering be over?" Fox thought and questioned in his mind. The filming room got closer and closer with every step. The execution scene was already set up as Doris rudely pushed Fox into the chair. The TV announcer started to speak:

"Greetings to one and all watching this broadcast in particular tonight. Tonight, we celebrate our efforts into defeating Starfox and making the Zoness Army surrender. The first part of the celebration is the execution of Starfox." Every worker in the room hadn't even noticed the ketchup packets on the back of their heads. Fox looked at the ground, pretending to be sad. He was a great actor.

The first shot rang as the ketchup in the packet flew everywhere. Fox pretended to fly out of the chair and die. One after another, they flew out of the chair. Doris was precise as the ketchup packets were so close to all of their skulls. After each and every one of their 'deaths', the bodies were laid all across the floor. Doris got out of the camera's view and shot it. Fox shot up and shot the director, producer and cameraman. Slippy, Krystal, Falco and Matt cleaned up the place as well.

The TV announcer came on again. "Sorry folks for the interruption. It turns out as though the camera had lost signal and was not able to film the entire event. Sorry for the inconvenience. The following part of the celebration is to host our own special parade! That's right you and your friends will come out to Zoness City to parade! We've finally taken down Starfox and the Zoness Army so why not pay your hard work off with a little bit of drink and food! See you there!" The voice stopped.

VII

Zoness City, Zoness - 15:12 Hours September 1, 2276

Today was celebration day. It was Falco's 'secret little weapon' in his journal that he was writing about. Falco grinned evilly as he looked over Zoness City's Main Street from the Great Fox Mark III. The stage was set. "Start the ASD Bombers that are located at the dock." He commanded as the guard, Sebastian did so. Main Street was closed off with barriers, so no one could leave. The dense population meant the job of killing was easy.

"Bombers are goin' in 5...4...3...2...1." Sebastian yelled over to Falco and the whole team as the bombers set off in the humid afternoon sky. The bomber planes dropped the bombs to the city streets as they boomed like thunder. The flashing lights and colors made it a beautiful sight. Falco started to look at the death counter on his computer. The bombs were connected to the computer by Bluetooth and even though have already exploded, had a little piece inside of them to scan a person's heartbeat from miles away. So far, 81,250 dead.

The second set of bombs were released from the dock as they plummeted into businesses and buildings. Not exactly where Falco intended them to land. Some bombs being duds, were spun off toward the sea. Not Falco's intentions either. He became slightly angered. The only sound that could be heard from the streets were the sounds of the bombs erupting and the ear-shattering screams. So far, 142,500 dead.

The third and fourth set of bombs came and went. They had the same reaction when they were dropped. The third and fourth were the strongest waves of bombs. The shock wave went across the entire island and into the ocean as it created mini-tsunamis causing hundreds of thousands of dollars on other luxury islands. Starfox had agreed with the Zoness government and Army to help repair the islands and pay for 45% of damages. All of 325,000 dead.

Fox was celebrating in his bedroom during the whole bombing event. Cheering whenever a bomb struck head on with a humongous crowd of people. When the bombing was over, Fox came out to congratulate Falco. He hugged Falco. "Hey, back off me kid. I'm not your boyfriend…" Falco was weirded out as he sat back down in his swivel chair. Fox was excited to where the next mission headed. He quickly asked ROB. "Where's our next location?" "Setting course for Fortuna. Further information will be given shortly." ROB said.

A nurse that was taking good care for Peppy came out of the hospital room and her

face hardened as he approached Fox. The doctor said those sixteen words that Fox never wanted to hear out of anyone's mouth. His face went pale as tears and sweat filled his face. His heart dropped and sank lower and lower when the doctor said: "You may want to say goodbye to him. He might not make it through the night."


	6. Chapter 6 - Fortuna

**On Titania**

The voice looked down to see a letter half-buried in the sand.

(I am with a group of people that know too much. Their information is dangerous and useful. They have been kind to me and I don't want to become a traitor in their eyes.)

Solar/Aquas Arspace - 22:48 Hours - September 1, 2276

I

Fox thought long and hard about going down to the room. But he decided it was for the best, literally. He walked down the hallway for what seemed like ages. He knocked three times on the door and the nurse let him in. The state that Peppy was in shocked him. He ran over to him. "Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God." His voice started as a mump and got louder. He ran over and knelt down next to Peppy's hospital bed.

The nurse looked at the scared vulpine with a blank expression. Fox looked up at the nurse and looked back down. "Peppy, I just want to say thank you. You got to where I am today and without you I wouldn't have good friends, good life, or good anything. I really hope you understand." He'd tears streaming from his eyes. Peppy started to wake up. "Err...get out of here, now!" The nurse said fast, pushing Fox out the door.

Fox was confused. He peeked through the little hole in the middle of the door. Peppy got up out of his bed as he threw his hospital clothes off himself. "Get me out of these clothes! Get me out of this room! I want to see Fox!" Peppy raged as he opened the door. The door opened outward as Fox was hit in the face with it. His nose started to bleed. Fox held his nose in pain as he ran down the hallway to get himself a tissue as Peppy was following behind.

"Fox! You're here!" Peppy said ecstatically as he threw himself into Fox hugging him. It brought him down to the ground. Fox was amazed. "Peppy, how in the hell are you well?" Fox questioned while rhyming. "Whad'ya mean?" Peppy was as bewildered as Fox. "We thought you were going to die." Fox lifted himself up off the ground and stood.

The nurse panted as she was running down the hallway. "This is the work of a miracle… how is he fine?" The nurse grilled as she inspected Peppy. "I'm surprised with your acumen." Fox said sarcastically while looking at the nurse with disappointment. "I'll have a little talk with General Pepper about you." He said sternly, looking in the panicking nurse's eyes. Fox went toward General Pepper's room as he rudely opened the door.

"Pepper, I need you to fire that nurse immediately!" Fox projected. "Fox, what in the hell is the matter with you? I told you specifically not to interrupt me during my sleeping routine!" General shot back. "Yeah, I know, I know. Look, the nurse scared me half to death! She had said Peppy had one night left in this system! I thought he was going to die!" Fox said. "That should be _no_ reason to fire a nurse, Fox. Please get your mind together and just leave my room!" General directed Fox out his door.

"One more snap like that, McCloud, and I may have to throw you around some!" General laughed as he laid back down on his bed. It was never of use to argue with General. He could seriously kick your ass. Fox looked outside of the Great Fox to see the great Solar and Aquas Arspace, it was one of the greatest sights in the system. The color of blue and red mixing together created a nice purple and orange mixture was one of the best sights Fox had seen. Another great sight to see was Fortuna.

Fortuna was starting to come into vision. Fox looked at his watch. It read: 12:42 A.M. Fox thought they could at least get there before lunch. He was getting sleepy and after a long and rough night, Fox went to bed. Krystal was already sleeping as he entered. He didn't want to disturb her. Fox's stomach was already rumbling for breakfast. He didn't eat dinner while on the Great Fox. A lot of things were going through his mind. He didn't eat at the dinner table, because he would look weird in front of others by not eating or socializing. He decided to say he was not hungry so he could stay in his bed.

II

Katina/Solar Arspace - 4:52 Hours

Fox's alarm clock beeped the same old, iconic beep in his ears. He slowly opened his eyes as he slammed the clock down in frustration a little bit too abruptly. "Dammit…" He whispered in exasperation. It fell on the floor as the batteries fell out. Fox usually set everyone's alarm clocks to erratic times like 4:52 A.M. He always said it was for whenever ROB would announce that breakfast would be ready or some mission stuff he and General'd planned. Krystal also slowly got up out of bed. She went to her luxury dressing room as she'd thrown on her morning robe.

Fox started to head out of his room as he whiffed the smell of eggs, sausage, wheat toast, coffee, bacon, hash browns, crumpets and other favorite breakfast treats. He eyed the table as the silverware was already set up. ROB had turned the lights on ten minutes ago. He looked at the long kitchen counter where ROB was cooking. "Mmm. This smells delicious, ROB. I never knew you were such a good cook." Fox complemented. "Thank you. Well, I do search for the best online recipes and process them through my cooking app." The robot responded.

Fox was usually first at the dinner table while his friends weren't the best at getting out of bed in the morning. Sometimes, Fox would literally have to go in each and everyone's rooms and scream, "BREAKFAST'S READY!", at the top of his lungs. They would all come out by then. Peppy was the second one to get up. His eyes were fairly crusty, as it looked and seemed as he didn't get enough sleep. His striped pajamas were slightly covered in last night's coffee stains.

Soon, the rest of the team got out of their beds and headed toward the kitchen. The food was already on their plates. Falco was the first to dig in. He wolfed his pancakes down fast. "Falco, be careful. You don't wanna get hiccups." Peppy warned. "Sorry, it's just these pancakes are so good." Falco said with a big chunk of food in his beak. "It's kind of rude to talk with food in your mouth, Falco." Fox said looking at Falco weird and slightly chuckling. "Whatever." Falco shrugged.

ROB strolled along the table. "Enjoying your meal so far?" "Yes, thank you, ROB." Krystal thanked him as ROB went toward the living room. He looked at the CER 73" 4K Flat Screen TV. "May I suggest a show to watch?" ROB asked politely. "No thanks. We'd like to have a breakfast where we can socialize." Fox said. Slippy was done with his hash browns and started to look for other plates to steal hash browns from. Doris grabbed the biggest "knife" out of the kitchen cabinet as he accidentally cut his wrist. Weirdly, for Doris, he was not hurt and showed no signs of it.

Slippy slowly lifted his fork as he took a three quarters of Doris' hash browns while Doris was refilling on orange juice. " _Why the hell does Doris use a cutlass to put butter on his toast? No wonder he has a cut on his arm._ " Slippy thought. Doris headed back and looked down at his plate. "What happened?" He gasped as he looked all around his plate. "Where did my hash browns go?" He started to get angry. Slippy tried to gulp down the stolen food as fast as he could but Doris caught him. Doris shrugged it off and laughed as he started to eat his toast.

Breakfast was fun while it lasted as General Pepper walked in. He looked at Fox, still slightly angry from last night. "We are headed into Fortuna's atmosphere and we are landing shortly. Please be patient until the arrival." General announced as everyone gave a slight cheer. Matt and Doris looked out to Fortuna, having never being there before. They peeked outside in awe like a child looking at the presents under the Christmas tree.

As the ship emerged through the atmosphere, Doris inched further toward a giant window. The sight he saw below almost turned him vacuous. For twas The Great Fortunican Mountain Range. They could see thriving villages with rivers running through them below. Fortuna was one of the most beautiful sights to see in the Lylat and nearly everyone overlooks it. As they neared closer toward the ground, they saw hard-working citizens of the nearing town.

III

The vessel lowered down next to the wide flowing river as a townsman was waiting patiently for their arrival. The hangar opened with ease, making a creaking sound as Fox appeared with General by his side. "Hello brother Yassé!" General bearhugged him as hard as possible. Yassé let go of the hug with a grunt, the hug being really strong. Fox stood there during the long hug, smiling while being happy for General reuniting with his brother again.

"Oh, Yassé. You don't know how damn happy I am to see you, man." General smiled. "I'm so happy to see you too, Pep." Yassé teased. He was happy but sad at the same, as Yassé was mayor of a town that sent innocent people to hard labor. He always knew, though that one day General and his team, Starfox, would liberate this cruel planet from tyranny. "This town needs to be saved. Since I'm the mayor, you think I have some control, but the reality is, I don't."

Fox's smile quickly turned to a frown as he saw what was going on behind Yassé. The citizens got no pay for hard labor. They were beat for making a mistake or being lazy. They would also beat you every night for being gay. Starfox all knew this was wrong, but the citizens were fine with it because if they were to disagree with the government, they would've been executed. " _So this is what happened during their secession_." Fox thought.

Falco came outside with a flaming riot stick in his left wing, his dominant wing. Fox gazed at the burning stick, his eyes filled with fire. His heart was filled with fire as well, again still not telling anyone on his team about it, as people might come to hate him and not understand what he's meaning. He looked Krystal with a worried expression, then looked away. He was on the brink of tears, but had to hold it in. He slowly stepped closer to Falco. "Watch where you're pointing that thing, Falco. You'll set your feathers on fire." Fox advised.

"I don't know what you're talkin' 'bout, kid. I've 'andled these things fa' years." Falco looked down at Fox, irritated. "Now, I don't know who you're calling _kid_ here. I am 26 years old just like you. There's no reason you should be calling me _kid_!" Fox argued with a strong point. "I'm just sayin', Foxy… I know what I'm doin'." Falco assured Fox. "Ok, if _you_ say so. Just remember that if you're set ablaze, all I'll do is gaze." Fox thought of that rhyme on the top of his head. Falco gave a slight smile and looked away.

"Excuse me, Yassé. I've to announce to them to give us five private minutes." General said as he turned his head and started to walk over to Starfox. "Ok." Yassé agreed as he sat on a wooden public bench. The bench's infrastructure was terrible and was prepared to fall apart at any minute due to how many people sit on it and vandalise it. He heard General's voice from afar speak to Starfox. Yassé had discovered there were some new folks that had joined their team.

"Yassé and I will be discussing on the wooden bench you see far in front of you. I need you all to be patient as I'm doing so. You are free to talk." General announced in a loud voice as he turned back around to sit down with Yassé. "We'll have to torch this entire place to the ground and let out all of the indentured slaves. We'll continue on throughout the Fortunican Mountain Range, burning down every village in our path. If the Fortunican Army does deploy their men on us, we always have our Great Fox ready to go. We'll continue to the city. The torching technique won't work once we're there. That's when we'll unleash the Great Fox and its power." General explained the plan in minimal detail so Yassé could get his point straight away.

General returned to the team talking in a giant circle. Some standing, some kneeling, squatting, laying in the manure ridden, rocky, barren grass and soil. Doris was oblivious to the dirty ground. Wolf laughed as he gave Doris a hand. "C'mon, kid. Get out of that dirty grass. You got a cut on your arm and you might get an infection." Wolf recalled to the earlier incident during breakfast. " _I don't know why the hell they didn't patch that grimy gash up. And I don't know why he used a damned cutlass to spread butter on his toast. What does he know? He's a foreigner._ " Wolf thought as Doris stood up.

"General, I'd just like to ask a simple question. What did you explain to Yassé?" Fox asked. "The plan." General gave a somewhat vague answer. Fox looked in confusion. General assumed he was confused due to his facial expression and then further explained. "I could only explain it to Yassé because he's the person I trust the most." General said. Fox looked down at the ground, understanding about the situation and started to walk toward the town. Wolf followed as he absurdly scratched Fox on the shoulder, leaving his shoulder to slowly ooze modest doses of blood.

Fox gripped his shoulder in pain, the pain he experienced was not great, however. "Yes, Wolf?" Fox asked. "I've a feeling about General, man. I feel like a chunk of his mind went mental, pun intended, and kinda spiralled recently. I don't know if it's the reunion with his brother or not but, I'm kinda freaked out." Wolf conspired. "I don't really think there's anything wrong with him _mentally_. He may have some troubles socially and emotionally, though." Fox was trying to branch off of Wolf's idea. "Did you hear? We're having dinner with Yassé in his town hall. Heard it's pretty lavish in terms of structure in there.

"No, I didn't know that. Why didn't he tell the rest of us?" Fox asked, concerned. "He said he wanted it to be a surprise to the others. Guess he picked me to keep the surprise to myself 'cus I'm a _trustworthy guy_. Yeah, OK. Old man probably thought I was used to surprises." Wolf said, hard as nails. "Well, we might as well get to the town hall quick." Fox said looking at his watch. It read: 5:54 P.M. Fox started to run to the town hall while Wolf was catching up behind him.

IV

Fox and Wolf had got to the town hall earlier than anyone. They saw three big lines to desks. Each desk had its own sign. Each sign said: EMIGRATEIN, HOPISTALE, FODSTUF| The language was here like a Cornerian putting on a terrible Katinese accent. The people in line looked emaciated. Some holding their stomachs, some with whipmarks on their backs, others screaming in pain begging for Lylus to swoop them up with his galaxy-wide hands and throw them in the middle of Solar so they could be at peace.

Fox stared at the sight for so long. He saw people walk back from the 'FODSTUF' isle with tiny food in their hands. Some people got more food than others. It depended on how much they worked. Each worker in the town was paid the same bi-weekly salary of one potato, two quarts of contaminated water, and three shillings. There was no higher or lower salary. It was like this all the time. Wolf slapped Fox and dragged him by the arm as they went upstairs.

"Stop looking at _them_ , we have a dinner to eat!" Wolf said, irritated. " _Wow, Wolf is kind of being an ass today_." Fox said frowning while looking down at the stairs. The dining room smelled amazing as the room was painted a fancy velvet red, roseate in a way. The ceiling was decorated with chandeliers as lavish glass cabinets that held silverware were on every wall. This room was made for rich government elitists and guests only. Anyone not of that sort who came upstairs, would be banished from the town and starved more than they did.

"Wow. Such a nice expensive room for a worn-down town, y'know?" Wolf said, seating himself. Wolf's legs were tired and was finally happy to relax… on a hard wooden chair. Fox sat down as well, next to Wolf. Wolf looked over to Fox, irritated. "Why exactly are you sitting next to me?" Fox looked back. "I'don'know." He said scooting his chair a little closer to Wolf. "What're you, gay?" Wolf asked, bringing out his fangs. "No. What're you, a homophobe?" Fox also brought out his fangs. "No, not necessarily. You see, it wasn't really _OK_ to be gay where I grew up. You were kinda sorta beaten until unconsciousness." Wolf sighed.

He looked at the four tin covered bowls on the wooden table. They were all full of fake fruit. Didn't make anything seem more 'lively.' " _When in the hell are they arriving?" It's getting a bit awkward with this dainty, soyboy, frolicious fox._ " Wolf thought with anger. Yassé entered the room as he saw Wolf and Fox sitting next to each other. "Wow. I see you guys are in some _real_ proper attire there." Yassé was being sarcastic like Wolf earlier.

Fox was in some of his gear and a green tank top. Wolf was wearing his regular outfit

of a white tee, leather jacket and jeans. A typical 'bad boy' attire. "The rest will be here shortly." Yassé said. A small relief bomb went off in Wolf's mind as a big amount of air was released as he sighed. Wolf smiled as he patted Fox on the back. "Y'know, you're not a bad homosexual after all, Fox." Fox heard his sentence and jumped in surprise. "What? I'm not a homosexual!" Fox had a crack in his voice. "You got quick to defend that in an angry way, Fox. Are you a homophobe?" Wolf jokingly asked. "I know you're doing this to piss me off, and it's working." Fox said as his mouth formed into a small circle. Wolf wheezed, slapped his knee and bent over from laughing.

Falco entered with Slippy, who Falco always deems as 'annoying.' "Where did your riot stick go, Falco?" Slippy said, chuckling. "That's the sixth time you've asked me that stupid question. I dropped it on accident in the river." Falco answered with reluctance. Slippy cried tears of laughter like Wolf to Fox and he was rolling on the floor. "C'mon get up you big goofball." Falco lifted Slippy up with a grunt. He set Slippy down to sit next to Fox.

Falco peeked out one of the dining room windows to the spot where he dropped his riot stick. A fellow went wading where he dropped it. Falco dropped it by accidentally slipping on a rock and losing control of his grip. Slippy laughed so hard at the moment, you can imagine.

 **At the river...**

"Wait til' we're even, toad. Then we'll see who's laughin'." Falco got up with anger and continued across the brick road to the town hall.

 **Now…**

The fellow picked up the stick and brought it with himself. Falco saw him also hold a rock and some rope. "Hey, that guy's got my riot stick." Falco murmured under his breath as he went to sit down at the dinner table. Peppy, Matt, Doris, Krystal and General all came in at the same time. They got the warmest welcome because it was two highly respected elders and newcomers. They wanted to feel welcome and they got what they wanted.

Doris ran up to Falco and asked him a question. "What happened to your riot stick, Falco?" Falco looked back. "Oh, I...err… accidentally dropped it in a river." Doris frowned. "Oh that's a shame." Doris walked away to the dinner table, awkwardly. Falco was still peeking out the window as the man with the rock, rope and riot stick went out of sight. " _Probably going back to his house_." Falco thought as he sat back down at the table.

V

A nice dressed waitress came up to them and asked for their drinks and appetizers. Some had already picked what they wanted while some needed to look longer. The lady had a strong Finchinian accent, an accent Doris could understand well. "Prive-I mean hello. What may I get you to drink today?" The woman asked. Everyone answered nearly the same answer. "Water, please." The waitress ran back to the kitchen with two large trays. She could balance well.

They saw the waitress come with their desired drinks. She carefully placed the drinks down near everyone's plate. "Trust me. This water isn't contaminated." Yassé persuaded. "I can trust you, brother." General said as he took a massive gulp out of his glass. "Yep, this water ain't contaminated. Jus' tastes different, y'know?" Wolf said. General glared at Wolf while mouthing: " _What the fuck?_ " Wolf mouthed back while shrugging his shoulders, also angry: " _What?_ "

Something about General didn't seem right. He was a bit off that night. He didn't pay any attention to any conversation or talk to anyone except his brother. He'd a long, sad, glum look on his face during the whole of dinner. The lady came back. "What can I get you for appetizers?"

"Cheese curds." Fox said.

"Nacho's." Falco said.

"Pretzels." Slippy said.

"Fries." Peppy said.

"Nacho's." Krystal said.

"Pretzels." Matt said.

"Cheese curds." Doris said.

"Pretzels." Yassé said.

When the waitress turned her head to General, his face was looking down at the table. "Hey, General. It's your turn to order." Fox snapped his fingers and waved his hands in front of General's face to wake him up.

General snapped out of the trance he was on as he looked up toward the waitress. "Oh, err…" General quickly looked back down at his menu as his eyes quickly scanned around for a tasty appetizer. "Cheese curds. That'll be fine, thank you." "Aw, thank _you_! Your orders will be out shortly." The waitress headed back into the kitchen. Falco looked at General with a worried face. "You OK, man?"

"Why in the fuck do you need to know?" General asked with aggression, moving the table around as he said so. "You don't have to retaliate at me like that! Jeez, dude, I'm sorry!" Falco looked at General with a hard expression. "I'm sorry, Mr. Lombardi. I won't have an outburst like that again." General said. " _Why did he refer to me as Mr. Lombardi? Queer, I say."_ Falco thought as he set down his drink and started to talk with Doris and Matt. Wolf thought it was a prime time to socialize so he turned to Fox.

"See what the fuck I'm talking about McCloud? He just ain't right in the head. I'm _tellin'_ ya'!" Wolf accented while whispering. "Y'know, I'm actually starting to believe you. I'll just have to wait until he's fully lost it." It was a great socializing time. The appetizers were about to arrive and a lot of folk told Yassé about their adventure in the Lylat and their missions so far. The good and bad for each mission, the extremes and breaks.

The wooden door to the downstairs' doorknob started to vibrate violently. 'LET ME IN! LET ME IN! OH MY GOD, PLEASE. I'M GOING TO FUCKING DIE!" The voice's cries of plead made it into the room, muffled. Falco ran over to the door to let the poor old man in. "Falco, no!" Krystal advised, but Falco ignored. The door bursted open with ease. Newly formed dust and debris spread into the eyes of Matt and Fox, temporarily blinding them. " _Oh God, I think I just shit myself."_ Falco thought as he ran back.

The man, the same man that Falco spotted at the river stealing his riot stick had formed an ax with the materials he had earlier and started to shatter the fancy glass cupboards sitting on the wall like a madman. "Someone needs to stop him." Fox said coughing as he could start to see OK again. Krystal hid behind him like a meatshield. The madman climbed up on the table and started to wreck it. Doris hopped up on the table as well. Everyone looked in astonishment.

Doris grabbed the man's neck and put him in a chokehold and started to bash his head on the table repeatedly while bringing him down. Doris had saw WWE on TV and had practiced famous moves for years. He took the man and slammed him down on the table, penis and head first. The whole table crumbled as splinters of wood were stabbing both the man and Doris in the ass.

The killer's body twitched while a large amount of blood profusely came out of nearly every pore in his entire body. He was near death. "This is what you deserve for messing with my friends, motherfucker." The bullet shot straight through the fucker's skull. Blood covered Doris' face and gear. As he stood up, most of it had dripped off. The rest of the team stared in amazement as Doris actually saved the team. Doris' Day, that day was called. September 2nd.

VI

Yanze, Fortuna - 12:36 Hours - September 2, 2276

 **THE FIRST FIRE**

Fox helped Falco line the streets of Yanze with gasoline. Yassé had told every citizen to pack their shit and leave toward twelve o'clock. Everyone followed, or else they would...you get the fuckin' idea. They finished lacing the street with gasoline as Falco had gathered a new firestick from Yassé. A gift, he thought. Falco held the stick in his hand as he got his lighter out and set the stick ablaze. He gently let the fire from the firestick down as the fire started.

Everyone stood in awe on how fast and high the fire spread. In a matter of seconds, fire was everywhere. It'd spread to a quarter of the town. Yassé had gathered all of the poor citizens from the town as they all followed him. Peppy'd hopped aboard the Great Fox and flew it just below mountain height. Yassé gave each citizen a gun, sword, a bag of food and a map. This was it. The Journey Through The Fortunican Valley.

 **THE SECOND FIRE**

By the time they arrived to the next village it had been twelve forty seven. The second fire. The second kill. Yassé grabbed three of the strongest men to follow him into the mayor's office. The mayor's name was Owen Clark. He handsignaled them to follow him into the town hall. Yassé busted down the front door and ran straight up to Owen's office, gun in hand. "Seize this town immediately, or else." One of Yassé's men went behind the mayor and put the muzzle right on his head. Owen was confused beyond belief.

He saw Fox and Falco out of his front window, standing next to a small fire as the fire gained mass quickly. Owen put his hands up and speedwalked out of his office. The armed men soon followed. Owen saw the town half burned to toast. Villagers were quickly evacuating one by one. Doris and Matt were ordered to kidnap anyone who couldn't run fast enough. These were mostly women and children. Fox and Falco helped with the kidnapping as well. Slippy, Krystal, Wolf and General were helping Yassé's men throughout the town.

 **THE THIRD FIRE**

25 Miles Bound of Wreridge, Fortuna (biggest city on Fortuna) - 18:08 Hours - September 2, 2276

They arrived at a worn down wooden bridge. They had gathered up a bigger supply of men from last town. They were all told to watch what was about to happen and not act.

The bridge was constructed in 1905. It was in terrible shape for nearly 155 years and looked as though it could plummet at any moment. Doris got out a ladder from a supply crate Wolf was carrying on his back dreadfully through the journey there. Guess the bridge wasn't the only thing out of shape here. He formed the ladder and headed down to the river. He started to rig the bottom pillars with dynamite, warheads, mortars and TNT. He taped them all carefully to each pillar. The water was shallow and was easy for walking.

All of the explosives were wired up to one big wire and connected to a train checkpoint/conducting station. Wolf killed the conductor, the poor old fucker he was. Wolf felt kinda bad when he took the conductors head and smashed it into the control board and pushed him down a flight of stairs. Wolf looked out of the big window where you could see a train passing by and had Doris on his call the entire time.

Doris was finished with rigging the underbridge with deadly explosives and climbed the ladder back on the steep hill. Yeah, it was a very steep hill but the way up seemed like robbing a child of their candy and the way down was like performing a New York City bank heist. Doris' shoes and lower pants were soaking with grass, mold, algae and dirt. "Boy, look at ya'. You need a washing." Slippy laughed while Doris gave a slight half-smile back.

The train was soon a spec in Wolf's eyes. The ride on train was terrible as the railroad track infrastructure was graded a "D-" from the Lylatian Federation seven years past. It hadn't gone checked since then and has degraded noticeably. The train's whistle sounded like death. Like a child's toy that played all sorts of happy songs but on very low battery. The train was a Fortuna Railways 4-6 2T High Pitched Boiler 3'6" Gauge MLS Superheated Steam Locomotive. A standard train for transporting food, weapons and other miscellaneous shit to Andross' men. It was nearing 6:30 P.M., the supply train's arrival.

The train came closer and closer. Doris ran to the conducting station where the detonator was hooked up to the wall, ready to go. "Yep, it's getting close alright." Krystal said as she was standing on an adjacent track to the bridge's. She was standing there with Fox, who, somehow, made himself as comfortable on a rock as in his own bed. The train approached the bridge at high speeds as it roared on the tracks. "Now!" Wolf called out. Doris pushed the detonator down as the bridge exploded.

A big flash of colorful light flashed in the air. Red, orange, yellow, grey and black. The bridge's supports would've fallen easily even without TNT, but they wanted to hurry with their jobs. The feel against Fox's fur was like none he's felt like none other before. " _I was impaired in my eyes and now my ears? Jeez."_ Fox thought. The explosion reached as far as the foundation of the checkpoint station. The station rumbled. Wolf and Doris thought they were going to fall in the river and quickly went outside.

The flames engulfing the bridge shone on the clear river water. It was one of the most beautiful sights Wolf had seen in his life. Wood crashed down into the water one by one. It was almost explosion threw around the pieces of wood like a child throwing rocks in the water to see how much of a big splash they would make. Wolf looked outside the shattered glass window to see Fox running over to Krystal. "Oh my God, babe, are you okay?" Fox said, hesitating while trying to bring Krystal to her feet.

" _That is it! No more mission stuff for her. She's out."_ Fox thought and murmured silently under his breath. He reached for his phone in his pocket and dialed for the emergency team.

"Hello, yes. Your emergency?" The operator asked.

"Yes, this Fox McCloud, and I have a girl down here named Krystal McCloud and she's possibly deaf and blind. Get here immediately please." Fox hurried.

"Will do, sir." The operator hung up.

The phone rang for Peppy.

"Yello?" Peppy greeted.

"We have a possible deafy and blindy down here. Her name is Krystal McCloud and she needs treatment now." The operator said.

"Oh shucks, I'm on my way down." Peppy said as he lifted the Great Fox's altitude above Mount Elbert and turned right.

The station rumbled more and cracked as pieces of concrete and stonewall fell off the hill and into the river like boulders.

Peppy lowered the aircraft as fast as he could. "This fuckin' thing. Lower faster!" Peppy raged. The lever was close to breaking as electric current surged through the catalyst like a tsunami. If Peppy touched it, or even grazed it by accident, he could've been shocked or worse; electrocuted. The aircraft grazed against some mountain rock as it made a high screeching sound. "Motherfucker." Peppy moved forward. The graze left some scratches and would be hard to explain to CARA.

The Feurnborg was still flying above the station as Peppy landed. He ran out to the hangar as it didn't open with ease. The winds had picked up speed as the hangar opened. It flopped and flapped around in the breeze. "Oh shit. That's not good." Peppy said as he ran through the hangar. Peppy thought in his head how to time the exit just right. " _Ok, ok. Alright."_ He thought. He threw himself out of the hangar door as it slammed down to the floor. Peppy looked back in shock as sweat ran down his face like rain.

He got himself off the ground and got his phone out to call Fox.

"Hello, Fox. Can you please tell me your location?"

"I see you Peppy. Come due south. You'll see me next to a big rock helping Krystal up. Get here quickly, please and thank you."

"Don't worry. I'll be on my way in no time, Fox."

Peppy dodged the cracks and dents in the railroad as he approached the rock.

He got out his first-aid kit. Peppy got out his flashlight and looked in Krystal's eyes. There was grass and dirt scattered around in her eyes. "Yep, there's a lot of shit in her eyes." Peppy got out his eye-drops from the suitcase and carefully placed the disinfecting soap drops in her eyes. He manually closed Krystal's eyelids. "Tell 'er 'er eyes need to stay closed for 30 seconds. It'll take around ten to 20 minutes for her to get her normal vision back. She'll be fine. Now her _ears_ … we'll just leave that up to the doctors. Yeah I'm an immediate aid assistant (IAA) but I don't know the Bible like the CARA doctors." Peppy started to walk away. Wolf walked over to Fox.

"Damn, Fox. That's a pretty serious situation you got there. What are you gonna do? She's always getting hurt." Fox looked down at the ground and let go of Krystal's hand. "I'm whispering this so she can't hear but… I'm kicking her from the team. I just… can't deal with her getting hurt this often and I think it would be for the better good if she just… left." Fox's gentle words sprang in Wolf's ear. He sighed and agreed. "Yeah, but, shit. She's your wife. This could be the end of your relationship."

"I'll do my best, but I know for a fucking fact she'll take it the wrong way. Wait and see, Wolf." Fox let off steam. Wolf laughed. Fox slapped Wolf in the face as a joke and snickered. Wolf took it the wrong way and struck Fox right in the testicles with his foot. "Wolf, you're a fucking pussy!" Fox yelled in anger as he threw up. Falco turned on his radio to a classic rock station as one of his favorite songs blasted throughout the fight.

"You want another eyepatch, you sonuvabitch?" Fox lunged toward Wolf and punched him square in the jaw. "Ow, you motherfucker!" Wolf said, rubbing his chin and jaw in pain. "You want another broken leg, faggot?" Wolf spoke through his teeth. His voice made a slight whistle as his top right canine was chipped. "I hope you fucking swallow your teeth, you asshole!" Fox retaliated. Slippy ran up to the fight, furious. "Guys! Guys! Shut the fuck up!" He yelled. Wolf and Fox looked at Slippy like they never have before.

"Jesus, Slippy. Alright." Wolf walked back. Falco started to laugh as he turned off his radio. "Hehehe, back to the fuckin' quarry, Wolf and Fox. That fight is comin' out of both of ya's paychecks." Falco quacked. "Ey, can you shut your fuckin' beak for once, bird?" Wolf looked back. "What was that?" Falco laughed while asking. "You heard me, fucker." Wolf, Falco, Fox and General started to walk due east, toward Wreridge. They could see the tall, blocky, Solarism-esque type buildings. "Oh here we go." Falco rolled his eyes.

 **THE FOURTH AND FINAL FIRE**

Peppy readied up the bombs in the West Hall and brought the crate of them in the elevator and went down. **He'd** escaped to Fortuna during the Zoness and Venom missions without Starfox's knowing and caused the death of eleven million galaxy wide. The people had to agree with **him** or else **he** would kill them. After the death of the eleven million, a new law was passed to not protest at all. The government wanted to seem perfect in **his** eyes and the people's eyes. They had also banned Lylatian Federation goods as they were a danger to the people. The danger being the outside news and information.

 **He** looked outside to see 12 aircrafts surrounding the city limits, ready to fire at any moment. "Ublyudok, oni zdes'!" (Motherfucker, they're here!) **He** said as he went to talk to General Sylvester about the threat. "Ser, yest' ikh. Kak my ikh prinimayem?" (Sir, there's a fuckload of them. How do we take 'em on?) "My vystraivayem tanki na kazhdoy ulitse." (We line tanks up on every street.) There were only 121 tanks in use left. The town had 654 streets. "U nas net dostatochnogo kolichestva tankov, ty, chert voz'mi, tupitsa!" (We don't have enough tanks for that, you fucking dumbass!)

Sylvester smashed **his** face down on the control board, shaking it back and forth like a disinfecting wipe. "Ya khochu, chtoby ty proboval kazhduyu knopku, suka!" (I want you to taste every button, you bitch!) **His** face was covered in blood as **he** staggered back and forth, left and right. **He** felt more dizzy with every step and **he** fell on the floor. Sylvester approached him as his spiked boot was on **his** back. "Vkusite pol, poka vy na nem, tozhe!" (Taste the floor while you're at it, too!) Sylvester got his foot off **his** back.

Something inside of **him** wanted to get out badly as it went from his chest down to his stomach, punching him endlessly. "STOP! DLYA LYUBVI LILYUSA! SPOIKOI NOCHI!" (STOP! FOR THE LOVE OF LYLUS! PLEASE!) It kept on punching him. The little voice said in his stomach. "I'll kill you motherfucker, I'll do it. Don't fucking make me faggot!" It said. **He** couldn't understand the language, which made **him** give up a little. Bu **t he** could tell that the voice was not joyous, but sociopathic.

The punches turned to stabs as it went up to **his** neck and head. "POZVOLYAYTE MNE IZ ETOY NOCHNOY PROGRAMMY!" (LET ME OUT OF THIS FUCKING NIGHTMARE!) **He** ran down two flights of stairs to the supply room. Each step felt longer to go down. The supply room had a finite supply of gasoline. A relief and fear came over **him** as **he** went over to a tank of gasoline. "Vot ono ... moy vykhod!" (There it is… my way out!) **He** started to gulp down the gallon of gasoline. "What does this fucker think he's doing?" It started to climb to **his** head.

It took out its strong fist and punched **his** mouth. It got out and ran away. "You're fucking delusional man." The voice said trying to exit the door. "What the fuck? It's locked! HELP! HELP! GET ME THE FUCK OUTTA HERE! CAN ANYONE HEAR ME?" It tried to scream, but it couldn't be heard. Sylvester got into the room as the scene horrified him. **His** eyes were full of fire and **his** last breaths were full of smoke. The smoke turned to flames as they spread through the room. Sylvester scurried out of the room.

The 12 aircrafts came closer to the city, making a smaller circumference. The more inward toward the city, the more powerful the bombs.

"Ar Main to All, can you all hear me loud and clear?"

"We can all hear you loud and clear, sir."

"Peppy, are we free to release the bombs now?"

"Yes, you may. FIRE AWAY!"

Bombs bursted through the releasing compartments as they fell toward the ground. The whumping sound, blasting through the city, made civilians deaf. The thick bullets from each ship were roaring from the capsules of each ship.

"Fire at them motherfuckers!" Peppy moved forward along with the twelve aircrafts.

Sylvester turned to look outside as the aircrafts were closer than he thought. "Vot der'mo!" (Oh shit!) The voice was behind Sylvester, ready to kill. " _There they are. Those aircrafts are my saviors. It's my time to go. My time to kill."_ The voice said. It drawn its knife as it sharpened it, quietly so Sylvester couldn't hear. " _I'll make this motherfucker pay for what he's done to the good Lylatian people."_ The blade was behind Sylvester's neck at this point. It slit Sylvester's neck as he fell to the ground, begging for air. " _Ashes, ashes. We all fa..l..l dowwwnnnnnn."_ The song played in its mind. The voice was Bill.

"Ar Main to Six and Seven, how ya' holdin' up down there?" Peppy asked.

"Very well, sir." Six answered.

"Ditto, sir." Seven answered.

Seven had the main package. Starfox. The ship dropped them off at Ashland Street with their bikes ready to go.

"You guys feelin' alright?" Falco asked everyone.

"Yep, we're fine. Sorta." Fox said. He looked around on the ground of the street as he saw corpses that were victims of starvation and the explosion stacked on top of each other like Jenga pieces near a trash compactor. He put his arm over his eyes as he pretended not to see as everyone else had.

"Pep said we gotta 'clean up' over here. Hopefully, we don't have to clean up those corpses, yuck." Slippy stuck his tongue out and plugged his non-existent nose.

"Nah, they're already dead." Doris assured.

The room burned. **He** woke up not burning, coughing or hurt at all in anyway. "Kak, chert voz'mi, ya vse yeshche zhiv?" (How the fuck am I still alive?) **He** murmured. The hurt finally went away and a big smile came over **his** face. Nope. _Big fucking nope._ The pain came back again, but twice as painful. **He** couldn't describe how painful the pain was with screams, as they would be too weak. All **he** could do is lay there in silence. The pain had gotten to the point where **his** vision had vignette effect set to 100%. The world became black briefly.

"Holy shit!" Fox turned his bike in a 105 degree angle as the car skrrted.

Missiles went roaring past him as explosions entered buildings around him.

"Are you okay, Fox?" Yassé asked.

"Yeah, yeah. But holy shit was that loud or what!" Fox threw his hands up.

"Hooh yeah." Wolf agreed.

The voices escaped **him** and went through the front door. Not really smart of them, but okay, sure. A missile came crashing down toward the ground as the two voices got out of the way. The missile struck the high-rising military base as the building started to sway around. " _That building's going to fucking fall. Come on, we have to go!"_ The first voice grabbed the second voice's hand as they both ran away together. The voices were Katt and Fara.

The city sirens blasted, civilians quickly running out of their houses. The alarm was bending up in pitch for what seemed endless.

"Their sirens are fucking loud!" Fox covered his ears. His ears were very sensitive.

The wind had picked up speed even faster than during the third fire as Fox thought his hair would fly off his head. It didn't help as debris was spread around the city like salt on eggs.

"We must be careful. Remember what happen to blue girl?" Doris warned.

"Don't you mean Krystal, Doris?" Matt suggested.

"Yes yes. Krystal." Doris said.

"He's right, Fox. We should take heed on this one." Wolf agreed with Doris.

"Yeah he's right. But we don't have gogg-"

Matt brought a suitcase full of retro style sunglasses.

"Oh." Fox blushed.

"Go 'head, everyone. Take one."

 **He** wanted the pain to stop. **He** fell down on the floor crawling, crying. "NYETNYETNYETNYET! STOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOP!" (NONONONO! STOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOP!) The pain came back again. Although, it wasn't as bad as before. It was like getting a painful shot, then enduring the same pain again. Yes, **he** was still in some pain, but not great. **He** started to laugh uncontrollably, like a demon. **He** started to cry tears of joy as the two voices escaped. "YA NAKONETS BESPLATNO!" (I'M FINALLY FREE!) **He** said as **he** squirmed on the floor. Why was **he** joyous? All of **his** sacrifices were gone. The two voices were Miyu and Fay.

Bill started to sprint down Fairfield Avenue. He saw a group of people ahead that seemed familiar. A gang? Nope. A family escaping the city? Nope. That was Starfox. Bill ran as fast he could, his asthma not giving him a fair advantage.

" _Oh shit, I'm gonna black out. I need to make it to them."_ Bill didn't have his inhaler anywhere, as his asthma got progressively better throughout the years. He dolphin dived toward them. He landed in the middle of the circle that Starfox was standing in. Everyone was shocked.

"Bill, is that you? Oh my God!" Fox lifted Bill off the ground. Falco looked all around his face and body.

"Holy shit, Bill. You look awful. What in the fuck did they do to you?"

"It's too long of a story." Bill spoke as he hyperventilated.

Doris stood in horror as he'd never heard of Bill before. Bill looked in his eyes and smiled. He turned back around to Fox.

"There's more coming."

"What do you mean, 'there's more coming'?"

"I'm saying there's more friends you haven't seen in a while. They've all been trapped here."

"How so?"

"The power that captured us is extraordinary and spiritual. He doesn't die unless… unless… one of you do."

 **He** tried to escape with all of **his** might. The roads were completely kaput, making **his** efforts useless. The bridge was over the lake that Starfox had walked beside on their journey, had collapsed to the bottom of the water. The only thing behind **him** was a fiery hell and in front. **He** must endure the fire. Smell it, taste it. **His** feelings and emotions felt drained to dogshit. They've all escaped **his** enclosure until finally **he** knew… **he** had to escape his internal self.

"What? That's absolutely insane! There's no way someone like that can be _that_ fucked in the head." Fox said.

"We gotta figure out who our sacrifice will be." Falco said.

"Are you actually going along with this?" Fox raised an eyebrow.

"Well the only thing to stop this vile fuck for reigning terror on innocent people is for one of us to die."

"We must trick it. Trick the system." Bill breathed.

"How in the hell are we gonna do that?" Fox yelled.

"I don't know, now that I think about it. I guess we have to do it the hard way." Bill sighed.

"I'll go." A voice said, not far away.

 **He** could smell the taste of innocent blood. **He** followed the trail of the smell. "Ya vse blizhe i blizhe, vse blizhe i blizhe." (I'm getting closer and closer and closer and closer) **He** said. The voice sent into their minds. The minds of the weak and manipulative. **His** victims.

The voice played on in Fara's, Bill's and Katt's mind. Surrender now or forever hold your pain.

"Fara! Get over here!" Wolf yelled.

Fara ran over as fast as she could. The look she gave Wolf was dirtier than Falco's floor.

"Fara, where did you come from?" Fox asked.

Fara started to speak. "I-."

"I've already told them Fara." Bill looked at her with a toothy grin.

She sighed. "Look. I'll be the sacrifice. I'll always put forth myself in front of my friends if they need. I don't want to argue." She spoke in a monotone voice looking straight in Fox's eyes.

Fox put his head down in his hands, rubbing his face slowly with them while sighing.

"I'll always remember what you did. I'm so happy we have somebody as brave as you." Fox said as he let her go.

"Ar Eight to Main my ship is going out of control as the main control stick has fallen out of the catalyst!"

"Don't worry, Eight, we're sending help as fast as we can!" Peppy said.

"Don't worry about sending help… I'm already dead! There's no use! Oh fuck!"

"Calm down, Eight!" Peppy panicked.

The connection between Ar Eight and Main cut out and in every few seconds.

"Pull...up, pu..ll up! Mother...fuck...er!"

Peppy gazed out his main window as Eight was spinning out of its control.

"FUCK!"

Eight crashed into the capitol building in the president's room. The president was immediately killed by being crushed by the airplane. The building started to catch on fire.

Fox looked in the sky as Ar Eight went spiraling down.

"Oh fuck, that thing's gonna hit the - OH FUCK!"

The sound of the explosion was massive and so were the screams. The explosion flew higher then some buildings. Nearby skyscrapers started to sway.

"Holy shit." Falco mumped.

Smoke started to spread through the streets, giving nearby viewers bronchitis and for some, lung cancer.

"Please, Fara… DON'T GO PLEA-HEA-HEASE!" Bill collapsed on the floor uncontrollably crying. When his tears had dried up and soaked away, she was gone. Fox hugged Bill as tight as he could.

"Don't worry, Bill. I'll miss her. We all will, but she made a sacrifice and that's probably the best and bravest thing she's ever done." Fox's tears combined with Bill's as they fell on the floor and mixed together.

Peppy was in shock for nearly an entire minute, his mouth not moving. " _He's really gone… Fuck."_ Peppy contacted Fox through his walkie-talkie.

"Fox! Come in, Fox! Did you see what happened?" Peppy asked with hesitation and worry in his voice.

"Yeah, Peppy. We all clearly saw it." Fox said, full of anger.

"Well, OK. Don't need to get rowdy now." Peppy set Ar Main down at the intersection of Flower and Grove and hopped out.

He was surprisingly skinny, like he hasn't eaten in two days. His face, grayer than normal, his teeth yellow and his posture, crooked. Falco was almost shocked as Peppy was before, but he snapped out of it. He thought looking at men for too long was a bit gay.

Fara had arrived back to **him**. "Vot vy, goryachiye veshchi. Tam ty moya zhertva." (There you are, hotstuff. There you are my sacrifice.) **He** licked **his** lips and grinned wider than **his** face could handle. Fara couldn't understand a single word. Fara thought about every single event in her life. Everyone. Every single, insignificant memory she put out of her head. They ran through her mind like a strip of film. But there was blood, and the people she remembered in the memories were all dead, a corpse head to toe.

 **He** pushed Fara to the ground, not letting her escape. "Spasibo. Ogromnoye spasibo." (Thank you. Thank you so much.) **His** sword went through Fara's neck. _Gone…_

The church that held the killing exploded and caught on fire. The whole town was set on fire. Every direction. Surrounded.

"ROB, Get the Great Fox down here, now!" Peppy demanded the robot. The robot followed as he lowered the Great Fox on the ground the safest way his computer could generate. One by one, each team member and newcomer were loaded on.

"We aren't leaving quite yet. We still need to see the town above and get all Ar's on board." Peppy said as the hangar door closed.

VII

Wreridge, Fortuna - 00:06 Hours - September 3, 2276

The fire was still raging hard after four hours. There was no fire department, police, or ambulance. The government thought they didn't _need_ them. Fox had seen worse. Wolf was more bored than ever and went to Fox's collectibles and asked him how much each thing was worth and how he got them. The prices were different, but the way Fox got them was the same way every time. "Bartering with the Katinese." Wolf got out two collectibles that made him surprised. They were two cigarette advertisements. "How did you get these?" Wolf asked as he took another sip of his Captain On The Rocks. Fox narrowed his eyes and inspected them closely. "Oh I stole those out of a Titanian tavern one time." Fox answered.

Wolf was intrigued. It was in English, surprisingly. He read the first advertisement that said:

 _Sealed with cellophane, "Louis Smoking Tobacco!" Always factory fresh! 2 for 15¢_ , _for pipe and cigarettes!_

Wolf scanned his eyes to the second one. It read:

 _Blue Marble Strikes are mild and mellow - the finest cigarettes you ever goshdarn smok'd! They're nice to your throat and lungs. Why? All because they are made of the finest Titanian and domestic tobacco's, properly aged, grown, crafted and blended with great skill._ _AND_ _there is an extra process in treating the tobacco. "IT'S TOASTED!" No Throat Irritation - No Cough - Mentholated and only 5¢! Sounds like a good goshdarn'd deal to me! BUY NOW!_

Wolf read it out loud as he stumbled over some words. "Wow, Wolf. I'm surprised you can read." Fox joked. "Wow, Fox. I'm surprised that twelve ants crawled up your asshole today." Wolf remarked. Fox laughed as he looked out the bedroom window. The town was still in shambles and Krystal was still in the hospital room. " _Oh, God. I completely forgot about Krystal. Fuck, I wouldn't worry about it right now."_ Fox thought at the back of his head. He was completely silent during that whole 30 seconds of thinking. It kind of scared Wolf when Fox wasn't talking for more than 20 seconds.

The town below was in full destruction while the Great Fox stayed halcyon, strangely enough. Fox thought he would hear a massive argument between Slippy and Falco at this time at night, but no. It was quiet… too quiet. Fox stepped outside of his room as he heard and saw ROB. "ETA… Aquas… 12 Days." He said that over and over as the Great Fox slowly elevated and flew away. He then turned his head to see his team, talking. Weird, as they were being quiet before. He thought nothing of it though and joined his friends to talk.


End file.
